The A-Team: Astros Off Day, Wait and See and What's Up With That

Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named AdamTalking Your Team series. Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the A Team,A straight up three o'clock Welcome in to
a Thursday edition of The A Teamhere on Sports Talk seven ninety. My

(00:23):
name is Adam Clanton. That isAdam Wexler, the show killer. Dan
Matthews producing as per usual as weare off and running and no Astros game
tonight. They have gone back outon the road. And boy, I
was looking at the last not eventwenty four hours, but the last handful

(00:44):
of days leading up to it,when you kind of knew that the news
wasn't going to be good with notone but two of your start hesitate.
It's their starting pitchers. But joseOrkati just seems like he's a not an
incomplete what's the word for twenty what'sthe twenty twenty four version of a key?
If you're going to describe it?I know this is not a good
answer for radio, but here itis. That's so mean? Why are

(01:07):
you so mean all the time,especially to jose ur Kety the way I
would say it, if you wantit for radio? Yeah, he and
I gave them the same amount thisyear. Ah, well, it's nothing
personal, but yes, you're askingfor a fact. He was unable to
be on the active roster when theseason began, and he was unable to
get to the active roster when hethought he was basically five days away from

(01:27):
pitching for the Astros. He wasthrowing his last rehab appearance throwing with the
Space Cowboys and had to leave thegame. Turns out surgery is and now
has happened and a season is lost. Complete season, how much of next
season obviously remains to be seen.Same thing for now. Christian Xavier,
though he did provide the team somethingthis year, was on the IL once

(01:51):
with neck discomfort, and Dana Brownsaid they were unrelated and I can definitely
see how. And unfortunately when hecame back just happened to be that he
just was not himself. Certainly hadsome instances where it just didn't look like
the same Javier. When he triedto throw on the side before what would
have been his fourth start after returningfrom neck discomfort, he couldn't and they

(02:12):
went in and they have now hadmultiple opinions on it, and he too
set for surgery, his being scheduledfor today and they are without someone who
definitely was a part of this year'smix. Jose air Keiaty would have slotted
in wherever they could have used ahealthy arm. Whether that turned out to
be a long guy in the bullpenat different times during the year, Undoubtedly,
as we've seen, they could usesome starting pitching, so I'm sure
he would have made some starts.And in Javier's case, a healthy Javier

(02:37):
makes thirty starts for the Astros intwenty twenty four and is prepared probably to
get the ball in Game three ofany postseason series they might have, and
then again potentially in Game seven,and you feel good about it. By
the way, well, that's whyyou give them the ball. Guys who
get the ball to start games onthe front side of a series. Games
one, two, and three areon the front side of a series.
Obviously a fifth game means maybe it'sright there in the middle. But you

(02:59):
know, right very much confidence he'sbeen there before, he's in the you
know he's your number three starter,and now he's not going to pitch for
you this year. That that hurtsif you were expecting something close to what
Christian havi Yeer has been over thecourse of his career, and he's been
very good, you know. Ibring that up for a reason, and
I up until we found out thathe was hurt, like seriously hurt,

(03:20):
going to have to have this surgery. And I think this still applies here
in twenty twenty four. Didn't youfeel going into their respective starts far more
confident, more often than not inChristian Javier than fromber Valdez. That's where
I had gotten that anymore. Imean the last probably almost calendar or baseball

(03:40):
year from where we are now tothat point of last year, and I
know Framber's time during that time periodis also extremely shaky. But no,
I wasn't quite there yet because therewere too many starts where and again when
he pitched well sometimes that was stillnow you need somebody else to get the
final twelve outs because he's given youfive innings, three hits, one run,

(04:02):
which is awesome, but it's nota lot of innings. E But
he's gone ninety eight pitches to getthrough his five innings sometimes so his best
starts. I know, he's beena part of a couple of no hitters,
He's been a part of a tonof low hit games of their front
level, top flight starting pitchers.He was almost always a given to give
you the least amount of innings.Yeah, and that's where Fromber would have

(04:24):
the advantage. If you're talking aboutthe two just just purely eating innings,
well, they're not pitted against eachother. Yeah, I know the teams,
but there were times where inadvertently Ifelt like they were, like you
know, in twenty twenty two whenthey win the World Series. You know,
Fromber's on the bump when you gotyour first win in the series,
but Christian Navier's start was far moreimpressive in that series. Why don't you

(04:46):
just go back to their last playoffappearance and talk to me about what awesome
teammates they are to each other.How did things end for both of them
last year at the end of theyear at home in Game six and seven
against the Texas, they couldn't havebeen closer tighter. Hey man, I
saw what happened to you in Gamesix. Watch this. I mean,
they were the same. You couldnot count on either one of them unfortunately.

(05:09):
Yeah, last year was a nightmarein the ALCS. Yeah, they
need as much as they can get, and it's just a matter of time.
I hope they do not do somethingsilly, and I think because of
what's happened, they will not meaningthe team. They cannot take what's happened
with Jose Rikehati and Christian Javier andpoint in the direction of Luis Garcia.
They cannot speed up his recovery anymorethan they are lucky enough that it already

(05:30):
has been. He needs all therehabbing he needs. It has nothing to
do with these guys. If theyneed to start from somebody, if they
need to make a roster move betweennow and the next three weeks, it
can't be for him. You can'tmake him ready. You can't force him
to be ready with all the thingsthat they've seen. And like I said,
I believe they are smart enough andhave seen enough to say that's the
last thing we want to do.Dan and Brown mentioned a couple of names

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they would have to be put onthe forty man roster, just like Nick
Hernandez was earlier this week. Butas you know, getting a pitcher onto
the forty man roster, one morepitcher is as easy it was getting Hernandez
on the roster. All you dois put Jose A. Rakeheti on the
sixty day IL. Players that goon the sixty DAYIL, they get taken
off the forty man roster. Youcan do the exact same thing with Christian

(06:16):
Javier quite easily. You're not gonnalose anybody off the forty man for whatever
the next move you need to make, if you need to make one for
a pitcher at some point in time. So they are looking at the next
several weeks worth of games, basicallythe month's worth of games of hoping that
the current five starters can make thestart every single turn for each and every

(06:38):
single one of them. It wasit seemed like a walking wounded group of
Astros in one series or two series, because you got to count the first
of the two times Kyle Tucker gothit. But Kyle Tucker getting hurt,
Alex Bregman getting hurt, and becausewe're talking about the pitching is why I
brought it up. Spencer Raghetti takena one h three point eight off the
calf and needing to leave his startearly. He didn't leave the moment it

(07:00):
hit him. He actually made theplay, stayed in there for the remainder
of inning two, and pitched inningthree before the Astros batted for about forty
five minutes and it tightened up onhim and they got a huge lead and
they ended up winning the game.And he said afterwards he fully expects to
make his next start. And I'msure tomorrow when we hear from the team
and Joe Spada will get the samefrom him, just to confirm, yes,

(07:21):
everything is still on track for himto make his start. Thankfully,
the team got a day off,so everybody's not continuing to pitch on four
days rest. But they have,you know, a handful of games to
go, like I said, aboutthree months or three weeks worth of games
to kind of pins and needles everyday. They need the starters to make
the start, and they really needthose starters to continue what they have been

(07:44):
doing. Five to six, sevengood reasonable, we can win this game
innings every time out. Three weeksin Major League baseball is an absolute eternity.
There are no weekends in Major LeagueBaseball. They're the exact opposite.
In Major League Baseball. You're alwaysplaying on Saturday and Sunday. When's the
last time the Astros had a Saturdayor Sunday off that didn't involve an active

(08:05):
of nature. For example, Imean, they had the super rare Friday
off when they made their way toMexico City, but that's not technically a
weekend. Y, Well, Iwasn't. I'm not. Yeah, of
course, baseball season is what itis. You don't have the like I
said, Luckily, today it's aday off. To get them there every
sixth day, they need these guysto answer the bell that they're pitching has
not been a problem for about amonth with the way that these starters have

(08:26):
gone the beginning of the season,where Joe Spott is looking at Josh Miller
and saying, I know we're likein the first here, but can you
pick up the phone please? Like, I gotta get this guy out of
there in the first inning. Igotta take this guy out after four outs.
That luckily hasn't happened. And Idon't think it's a coincidence that the
bullpennis has been incredibly sharp ever since, Ever since the Astros starting pitchers stopped

(08:50):
forcing six guys to pitch each dayand forcing Martinez and Taylor Scott to go
above and beyond and forcing Dana Brownin the personnel department to say, hey,
who pitch today? All Right,they're gone. We got to call
up somebody new for tomorrow because weneed a fresh arm, which they actually
had to do this week because ParkerMaschinsky pitched back to back days going into
yesterday's game, they sent him down. Granted he wasn't particularly effective, but

(09:13):
he had been while he was hereon this second stint, and they had
to bring Hernandez up because they neededavailable arms just to get to the off
day. He gave him an inning, Sean Duvam gave him seven outs,
and he'll be ready to go onFriday because he only threw twenty four pitches
to get there. The other pieceof news we hope to get that's good
for Friday's game against the Angels isan update on both Alex Bregman. Presume

(09:35):
Bregman's probably handy enough to make thestart at third base, which he was
not able to do Wednesday, Sowe'll have to wait and see on Tucker.
Yeah, and I guess you knowthe good news going into this series
coming off that off day fromber HunterBrown justin Verlander, is your rotation going
into a series against the team thatwell, you should beat, But that

(09:58):
wasn't the case time they lost theseries to the Angels. I think so,
didn't they They get swept by theAngels, They're bombarded by the Angels.
Almost do they get embarrassed by theAngels one of those games. Yes,
isn't a loss to the Angels embarrassing? No matter what these days,
look at their lineup. A lossto just right onto what you said.
I will only stick to the facts. A loss to the Angels is not

(10:20):
embarrassing. I thought they went intothe season knowing they would not go thirteen
and zer against the Angels. Ithought they lost saw that of three to
them for some reason. Maybe theydid. You don't remember it was?
Was it yesterday? They did?They lost the opener nine to seven,
and they lost the closer to one. They won in ten innings six to
five in the middle game. Oneof those turned the corner games. I

(10:41):
don't know. I can't honestly.It's so, you know, when when
I read, uh the excerpt fromJeff Passon's early early trade deadline preview article
today, and I see that it'seven a remote possibility that they could be
sellers. He mapped out four differentroutes. Yeah, well, he's very

(11:01):
important. Just ask him. I'mjust I'm very happy that somebody can help
me with analyzing the baseball season.You know, sixty three games in thought
about you. I was reading thesellers. I thought about all of the
ways that you were condescendingly, whichI don't mind because it's Jeff Passing going
to tell him that he could takehis stupid article and stick it where the
sun doesn't shine, because you don'tneed and to tell you what, I'm

(11:24):
just one person. He writes itfor the other people. He's not writing
it for me. It's okay,I know, but the two of you,
when I consume what each of youhas to offer, that's that's where
it gets to be fun. It'stwo people. I think. The other
reason I don't need to hear itis because it keeps being asked of Dana
over and over and over again,because the team is seven games under or
ten games under, and he hasanswered it very clearly every time, as

(11:45):
he should be at this point inthe season. That's an occupational hazard at
this point with whoever is going tobe the GM on whatever day for the
Astros. And I'm not even kiddingwhen I say that this year, I
don't think it was a question askedoften of James Click. I don't think
it was a question asked often ofJeff Luno in the last five many years
or so of his senure. Theobvious statement that anybody could make, and

(12:05):
I've seen dozens of people make itthis year already, is yeah, you
missed Jeff Luno. Well, ofcourse he built this monster. But you
would give your left arm for JamesClick right now compared to what's happened since
his departure, you would. Iwouldn't put it that way. I do
like him because it's not Dana's faultthat the worst moves made post James.

(12:26):
I'm not just talking about prior tohis arrival. But I'm not talking I'm
not just talking about Dana. Andwell, when you're saying I'd give my
left arm to have the current GMnot be here, you are yeah,
because I think the current GM inmany respects is just a puppet of who's
actually running things. And that's notI mean that, that's not said for
effect. And it's absolutely reasonable ofa statement to make considering what they've done

(12:48):
and what they continue to do.And the injuries are not anybody's fault,
but you know, some of theother personnel moves that whether Dana Brown is
responsible for them or not, andhe clearly wasn't for one of the biggest
gaffes they've made. I just honestly, I feel like the part of the
reason James Click isn't here is becausethose kinds of ideas were probably thrown by

(13:11):
him, and he said, areyou effing kidding me? You want to
do what? What kind of ideas? Signing? Jose Bray you to that
money? Even if you say allright, on paper, it looked good
because we both said the same.Dania wouldn't have said the same thing.
He wasn't even here. I'm sayingJames Klick wouldn't have would have been like,
no, we're not doing that.And and part of the reason for
that is the main reason why Ithink he's not here, and the main

(13:33):
reason that Jeff Bagwell may or maynot have clashed with him because they look
at analytics at a completely different endof the spectrum. And that's I mean,
for bear, for worst analytics iswhat built you into this monster.
And it's the exact opposite of howJeff Bagwell thinks you should run a team.
But hey, what do I know. I'm just a guy. In
the radio. So yeah, that'ssomething we can talk about. Obviously,

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we need to get to some Texansconversation. Oh, by the way,
the NBA Finals start tonight. Niceof them to resume, or I guess,
in this case begin on the NBAschedule. That's what happens when the
conference finals are as lackluster as theywere. But all of that and a
whole lot more to get to ona Thursday edition of The A Team Here
on Sports Talk seven ninety. Backto Adam Clinton had Adam Wexler the eight

(14:16):
Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.It is the A Team here on Sports
Talk seven ninety. Sometimes I thinkto myself self, I never thought I
uttered the phrase I can't wait forCJ. Stroud and the Texans to save
us from this national nightmare that isthe Astros twenty twenty four season, and

(14:37):
I realized they are only seven gamesout and they can make the playoffs.
No, they do you really feellike right now? I know Matt and
Ross were asking this the other day. I don't know if we've done an
unofficial poll of every talent on theAstros flagship station. I might add,
do you honestly feel like they're gonnamake the playoffs this year. I mean
just asking on June sixth, becauseI think it's a very interesting question right

(14:58):
now, given what's happened, givenwhat in front of them, injuries,
et cetera, et cetera, doyou really feel like, in your your
heart of hearts, they're going tomake the playoffs. I think they're going
to play well enough to make theplayoffs, but they're going to need help
that you can't count on. Ifeel comfortable saying they're going to finish second
in the division. But the wayof the playoffs now is you got to
be a wildcard, meaning the Twinshave to have the same kind of pitching

(15:20):
injuries the Astros are currently in,or the Royals starters have to start slowing
down a lot. Has anybody hadthe pitching injuries the Astros have had at
this point when you count what happenedyesterday, I don't think you not in
season, Like they went into theseason with two potential key pieces already not
here. Then when they arrived thefirst day of spring training, they forced

(15:43):
me to do a Verlander update everyday for a month. The very first
day I forgot about it him.He wasn't alone JP France also was not
healthy the very first day, whowas a huge part of last season's team,
is basically like a non factor.Now, why we keep omitting something
that's important to that very question?Oh No, Javier and Urkidi are no

(16:07):
longer available to pitch. I knowthey sent down JP Frantz, but I
don't care how he's been doing.He's the next guy in line, right,
he's been hurt for a month.He's not coming back anytime soon.
He's not prepared to help this team. So that's three guys that were hurt
when the season began or during it. Verlander began the season hurt. Have
you've had a luckily super brief amountof time that framber Frombert Valdez missed time.

(16:34):
Lucky that Raghetty and Hunter Brown havefixed things to that you're okay giving
the ball, giving them the ballevery fifth day. But again, the
next pitcher in line is four orfive pitchers down the line. Because of
all the pitchers that have been hurt. No, I don't think any team
has seen quite the magnitude of it, but numbers of injuries, there's several
teams that have missed key starting pitchersfor extended periods of time, and you

(16:56):
know, when you consider how goodthey are, I don't know. The
Yankees overall haven't had a ton,especially when the best picture in the American
League is on their staff, andthat's Luis Heel, the presumed best pitcher
in the American League, has yetto throw a pitch yet, but their
three most important pieces, as itturns out, I've all been there all
season, and that's Heel, alongwith both Soto and Judge. So that's

(17:19):
why they have the best record inthe American League. The Astors have a
lot to overcome, and it's nicethat Lower at least pitched well in his
most recent outing. He probably issomeone they would have to consider as a
next in line. The name ColtonGordon was mentioned by Dana Brown earlier this
week as someone they could turn to. I don't know how happy they would

(17:40):
be to turn to a couple oftheir younger, truer prospects, because they're
probably further away from actually being readyto go in there in a major league
game and try to get things done. Kind of the reason they turned to
a guy like Blair Henley once andI'm not sure that they will do that
again. Though he has had somemoments at the Triple A level, since
that's what they have to turn toif it goes that way. So yeah,

(18:00):
I do think they have a lotto overcome, but I expect this
team to be If they finished withfewer than eighty four wins, I guess
I would say I'll still be surprisedbecause I do believe there are still winning
streaks ahead of them. I thinkthere's got to be a time where four
guys in the lineup are all hittingwell at the same time. There has
to be usually sitting on two orthree. We're still waiting on it.

(18:22):
We are still waiting on it,and they've still managed to I just can't
help. But there's sixty three gamesin. They've played thirty seven games since
they went south to Mexico City.In those thirty seven games, they're twenty
one and sixteen. They've basically playedthe same baseball that Seattle has played since
then. The problem is they wereas far behind them as they were and
they still are today. They're notmaking up any ground on the Mariners.

(18:42):
But if they have another stretch oftwenty one and sixteen, another stretch of
maybe a game or two better,than that, well then they're probably a
game or two behind whomever is inthe wildcard race, and that would still
leave you thirty five forty games.That's where I still see them potentially being
in the mix for the playoffs.They will not be inside the playoff picture,
I don't think before September. ButI don't I wouldn't write off the

(19:07):
playoffs, not at all, notnot yet. But if you okay,
so just having said that, ifyou are not even going to find out
if you're going to be a playoffteam in tel September, that's a lot
of time in between, including avery pivotal trade deadline and what you do
or don't do at it to tokind of go one way or the other,

(19:30):
especially since it's more than one year'sworth of consideration. Yeah, I
mean, if if they're trade,if they're trading anybody of consequence, even
you know, one player may bemoved where and I don't mean to discount
his how necessary is to this team, But I can see this team moving
Ryan Presley in a similar way tohow the Mariners sent Kendall Graveman to the

(19:52):
Astros when they were in Seattle,Well they better send him to Seattle.
No, I don't think they will. Well, I don't know that.
I didn't have a chance to catchup on any latest on the Munno's injury
from last night, but I don'tknow that it was serious. They're playing
again today, he doesn't. They'reup one nothing. Oh, they just
scored huh. They probably are notgoing to do that, even though I

(20:14):
don't believe Ryan Presley will be backtwenty five because this is the last year
of his the more recent contract thathe signed. Beyond that, I don't
see them trading anybody else that's beenhelping them win. They're not trading I
don't believe they're trading Alex Bregman.Things would have to go supremely south from
today. Kyle Tucker's not being movedFrombers not being moved, you know,
I don't even think. I mean, if Chaz has moved, I wouldn't

(20:37):
consider him in that pool of players. I have a that's a number I
haven't prepared post to send out.It's not nice, but it is factual.
So ain't waiting for him to gettraded. No, it has nothing
to do with him being traded.It has more to do with how little
value he might have considering the seasonhe's having. It happened to him.
That's again, there's a lot ofplayers we used to say it's Bregman,
now I say it's McCormick that areabsolutely elate that Jose abrew is the one

(21:02):
who catches the all of the heat. The season that Chas McCormick is having
is insanely bad. They basically havebeen to the play the same number of
times this year, one ninety five, one ninety four, one of them
ninety four, one of them ninetyfive. But they've both done nothing this
year with Aaric Batts. Abreu hasa homer, Chaz does not. Abrello

(21:22):
has two extra base hits this year. Chaz has three. Chazz started on
a twenty twenty two World Series Championshipteam and contributed, But man, it
has been it's been slim pickens forone Chaz McCormick. All right, We
will switch gears to the Houston Texanswhen we come back here on a Thursday

(21:45):
edition of the eight Team Sports Talkseven ninety This is Cambeckmore here, every
Rock is Game More Sports Talk sevenninety and streaming on the Iart Radio ad
Your Ruck. It is the ateam here on Sports Talk seven to ninety,
did you have Joe Flacco back toback games against the Houston Texans on

(22:07):
your Bingo card? Well, ifI did, I would love to hold
that Bengo carcass. That sounds likea dub to me, provided the Texans
aren't starting no offense case Keenum,because it is possible. That's exactly what
could happen for the Texans. It'salways possible. We got a lot of
practice football to go before we getto the opener. Anthony Richardson and the
Colts hosting CJ. Stroud and theTexans. Anthony Richardson is scheduled to be

(22:32):
ready for the opener for the IndianapolisColts. Anthony Richardson participated in Colts Mini
camp and other assorted off season activitiesfollowing his shoulder surgery last year and assorted
other injuries they did long since recoveredfrom, but he was held out of
their final practice, a light workout, so he could rest what was a
sore shoulder. Always a concern forsomebody coming back from that, something that

(22:55):
could certainly impact the way he playsfootball, and you know for how long,
we don't know, but yeah,it at least made for the obvious
thought which I had for those thatdon't know, the brown said, man,
Joe, thank you so much,get out of here. After the
season, he was very instrumental inthem making it to the playoffs and becoming

(23:18):
one of the NFL's favorite in seasonstories, so much so that the incredibly
ridiculous and I'll use that word inplace of dumb, incredibly ridiculous voters voted
him the comeback Player of the Yearas opposed to DeMar Hamlin. But that's
okay. He again was told bythe Browns, thanks, but leave,

(23:38):
and he had someone come calling andsay, man, I know you were
out of the game for a whileand everybody thought you were totally unhelpful to
their team, but we saw differently. Last year. You showed us something.
Can you please back up Anthony Richardson. Joe Flacco is the Colts new
backup quarterback, Shane Steiken remains thebrains behind their offense and head coach also

(24:00):
keeps Sam Ellinger from being the backupto Anthony Richardson. And the way Anthony
Richson plays football through no faults ofhis own because he's trying to take advantage
of his awesome skill set and tremendousphysical talents. I definitely think he is
susceptible to needing to have games countedon. With him not there to be
counted on, a seventeen game seasonsare not likely what are immediately in his

(24:26):
future unless things change a little bit. Not all that different. As I
said the other day from Cam Newton, it's June sixth and Texans and Colts
have a couple of months before theyplay that opener. I do not believe
a sore shoulder is going to limithim from starting, But how do they
use him during camp because of it? Now? All parties in Indianapolis were

(24:48):
saying, this is merely precautionary.This is kind of the plan we had
in place. But again with himsaying he was sore and getting looked at
the day before, We're like,yeah, of course he's not gonna throw
more today on June sixth, afterwe're about to give them five and a
half six weeks off before training campbegins again. That only makes sense he'll
be starting in week one. Butif he's not, yeah, and Shane

(25:14):
Steiken said today rest a shirt.If we played on Sunday, he'd be
starting. That's fine, and I'mnot far be it from me to make
more of a an injury during thisportion of the offseason calendar, seeing as
how it's I mean, well,he also didn't get hurt. He's trying
to come back from being hurt.But that and they have a store shoulder

(25:34):
after having shoulder surgery. Isn't thiskind of like what we've been talking about
with these pitchers, Like I doubtit. Yeah, it is. It's
a nagging thing that you got tokeep an eye on. And the reason
it's happening is because you're trying todo your job Like that to me,

(25:55):
and I know this is probably nothingand he'll be fine for the season and
all that, but what if he'snot. And that's again that's a red
flag because I get it, there'sgonna be some sort of discomfort or soreness
or whatever whenever you have some sortof operation. It's particularly with you know,
the appendage that you're using for yourparticular position in the league. But

(26:18):
like, I don't want to behearing this right now, like what if
this happens in training camp? Thenwhat like what if he's just going through
life and hoping for the best.And yeah, but now you're starting to
really use this this this shoulder,and it's it's bugging you and you're either
going to have to play through painor worst case, it gets significantly more

(26:40):
you know, painful, or thenwhat because he's already got that like in
the back of your mind. Allright, this guy's not injury prone,
but whatever the injury prone light termwould be, it's it's right there on
the surface. It's not fair togive it to him yet, but with
in light of what happened, isrooky year and all that kind of stuff.
I don't know. By the way, I'm also a little and I'm

(27:03):
being a snob here about this.This guy got put under for a tattoo.
This guy got put under for atattoo. I realized it was a
very big tattoo his entire back andit looks amazing by the way, But
really you got put under for it, meaning he's a wimp kind of well,
I mean he could stay awake forit, right, that's a lot

(27:26):
of ink and multiple people were workingon it. We got an hour's time
on this four or five I've hadthat sound reasonable though, if I'm guessing,
yeah, I mean the extent ofthe work and the fact that there's
more than one person doing it.So if you got out put under,
then you get put under it andthen you wake up and have no idea
how long you've been there and it'slike, oh poop, it's over,

(27:48):
or you have to sit there againin his place, laying down and just
sitting there. I mean, I'msure he could have a conversation for four
or five hours with the artists,but are you getting just sitting there?
That's worse after our am He's gonnaput me under. He's getting put under
it because he's going to be bored. I'm just adding to the elements of
what this type of activity takes.He's just sitting there. You can either

(28:11):
be under and not feel anything andwake up and it will be all over,
or it's gonna be a long day. Your gut tell you. He
plays most of this upcomee season.Of course. Now it's an ac joint
sprains. It's definitely something to beconcerned about, but surgery usually fixes it.
They decided, and it wasn't aneasy decision last year to end his
season when they did because of it. There were other ways they could have

(28:33):
gone about it. I could havetried some other ways to correct it,
but they know that they're pretty confident. This is a second contract quarterback.
This is not someone that's going tobe here for four years that we don't
have an option. Don't pick upthe option on and let him go on
his way. This is someone whois probably gonna get a new deal after
year three, is going to bea mega millionaire quarterback, is going to

(28:56):
be the guy that takes us tothe Promised Land or close to it.
So why bother with something? Whynot take care of something asap before we
actually have the team around him thathe can win with. I think they
took the right path. I thinkthis will be a small hiccup, but
something to definitely keep an eye on. It is probably something that means Joe
Flacco and Sam Ellinger will throw alot more passes than your typical second and

(29:18):
third quarterbacks do at training camp.I would go that route. I would
have him be given days off,no matter how young he is or how
much he needs to build up chemistrywith you know, Pittman and Mitchell and
everybody else there. I'd be muchmore leaning towards We'll build the chemistry as
you continue to play together. Butlet's let's get you through another seventeen games
if we can. That's the wayI would play it. It's just I

(29:42):
don't know. I I and hegot hurt running correct well, he has
the ac joint spraying was the originalinjury to begin with, yes, but
which he suffered how I mean,I believe it was from either the hit
or the manner in which he fellon it. But he was hit in
a running situation or a passing situation. I think it's I don't know that

(30:06):
they diagnosed the play itself. Iknow he was hurt at least in these
ways. He was hurt against theTexans when he got the concussion, and
that was the result of a hitfollowing a touchdown run hit the back of
his head on the turf. Didn'timmediately realize he was needing to go on
concussion protocol because immediately after he gothit and hit his head, he jumped
up and flexed and was celebrating histouchdown. But then he reported symptoms of

(30:26):
it during his time on the benchand later was not playing in the game
and did not return for another week. Came back, he was hurt running
the football inside the red zone ona play headed towards the end zone,
but again that was a short termthing, and then this particular injury that
ultimately resulted in surgery. I don'treally fault them for wanting to use his

(30:48):
talents. I faulted the Redskins atthe time for how they used RG three
knowing what was already taking place insidehis body. And I faulted the Panthers.
I provely fall to the officials andhow they officiated Newton because he wasn't
taking your typical This is a bigquarterback and he's running a lot, he's
taking hits. They were letting himget hit way too much without any repercussion

(31:11):
so big, so teams take advantageof that and they let them and it's
I mean opponents, but you haveto be careful with it. There's no
question Cam Newton's the portion of hiscareer that could have been productive was cut
short by how much of a beatinghe took. And that's a concern the
day I draft Anthony Richardson. Butyou also cut from a team perspective,

(31:33):
do you kind of have to consider, Okay, so he's not great for
twelve years, what if he's elitefor nine well, then we're gonna make
him elite for nine He's gonna runfor twelve touchdowns, He's gonna run for
seven hundred and fifty yards. He'sgonna be our goalie back. They also
have Jonathan Taylor and Cam didn't,so maybe that helps a little bit.
No way Jonathan Taylor plays all nineof those years, that's the way they're

(31:53):
using. They have the number onerunning back in the AFC arguably so or
one of them, and certainly hada good group of players, But I
don't think he had that. Sothere's a little bit of give and take
with how you use him. Buthe's got skills that mean, like he
ran for two touchdowns against the Texanslike it was the easiest thing ever.
He was untouched on both of themuntil after he scored on the second one.

(32:14):
He's an extremely talented player when thefootball's in his hands, and the
Colts probably will be. Yeah,we'd liked him for playing for as long
as he can. I mean,look at Jalen Hurts. It doesn't really
look like the Eagles are protecting himat all either. They have already given
him his second contract. He takesa beating because they think he can.

(32:34):
It's one. That's one reason tolet them do it. All right.
We will continue here on Sports Talkseven to ninety it is the a team,
but not before we both tell youabout someplace that we will be once
again later this month. We've alreadybeen out to Tom's Watch Bar one time,
and we always like to emphasize thatwhen the Astros are in town,
it's a great time to take advantage. But look, they're not in town
right now, doesn't mean you can'tgo to the corner of Caroline and Paul

(32:57):
Can still have a litany of thingsthat they're gonna offer. The menu,
the drink specials, buy one,get one drink specials, for example,
it's all right there for you.They are they're welcoming you with open arms,
regardless of whether or not the hometownnine or playing a home game.
But when they are they give youan additional perk at Tom's Watch Bar.
Yeah, they want to get toand from the game, and they want

(33:19):
to do it on them free.That's what it costs you nothing. I
got a free shuttle to and fromMinute May Park two and from Astros games.
Gets you to avoid the ballpark parking, the hassle and the cost,
and they'll let you park in theGreen Street garage right there down the street
from Tom's Watch Bar. They'll bateyour parking and then they'll get you on
that shuttle. Of course in betweenfirst pitch and last pitch. You're enjoying

(33:40):
the game. Prior to first pitch, and immediately after last pitch or even
just later in the game, they'llbring you on back to Tom's Watch Bar
for you'd enjoy everything they have tooffer. Nachos, loaded tots, great
sandwiches, wings, stackos, youname it, they've got it in the
kitchen. Of course, the greatstuff to wash it all down with,
buy one, get one drink Specials'sUltimate Sports Sports right there at twelve oh

(34:01):
one, Caroline, That is thecorner of Caroline and Polk for Tom's Watch
Bar. Hey, it's blummer.The A Team continues with Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler. Baby, there's moreasses on this show than a certain mix
a lot video and like your motherwould not be proud. Right now,

(34:22):
baby's got those hot takes. Continuingthe conversation here on the A Team,
as we always do, this beinga Thursdays, we get you into your
weekend and hopefully some big plans foreach and every one of you were talking
a little about about one of theteams that hopes to stand in the way
of the Texans this upcoming season.I think Indianapolis is definitely reasonably placed to

(34:44):
be in their way, and theopener of the season could certainly go a
long way towards doing that. TheTexans ended up playing the Colts early in
the season last year. That wasWeek two, the game that we were
referencing, and the Colts came inand with Anthony Richardson starting, he got
out to a big lead. Texansplayed catch up the rest the way against
Gardner Minshew and never were able tocatch up. Texans then won the division

(35:05):
and beat Indianapolis and the process intheir building against Gardner Minshew in the final
game of the regular season. Althoughthey got a little help in that game
on a fourth down play that wenttheir way and not necessarily for their doing,
just a ball that was not caught. But yeah, I would place
them next in line. The JacksonvilleJaguars have their own set of circumstances to
overcome. They need their quarterback fromlast year to play significantly better as he

(35:29):
was he was just nothing special lastyear, and he also played hurt for
some of the second part of theseason, ironically missing one game over their
final seven. The loan game thatthey won was the one that he missed.
And they have I don't think toomany concerns. I wouldn't be concerned
about how their wide receiver group changed. They I thought were the smart team

(35:52):
a couple of years ago. Theytook advantage of the Atlanta Falcons and Calvin
Ridley no longer working together after theGambling Center unfolded With Calvin, I thought
it was a really talented player thatwas going to make a huge difference in
a pretty good group of receivers andtargets for Lawrence to throw to. He
was just an above average receiver.He was not special last season what turned

(36:13):
out to be his only season catchingballs there in Jacksonville, and he moves
inside the division over to Tennessee.We'll get to that in a minute,
but it wouldn't surprise me at allif there was even more chemistry and more
explosiveness and flat out better play immediatelyfrom Brian Thomas Junior. This is the
conversation we had over the last eightto ten days watching Nico Collins, Jalen

(36:34):
Waddle, Justin Jefferson all get megacontracts in an offseason where eight receivers have
been given mega contracts, somewhat surprisinglyin that it sure does seem like players
wide receivers have entered the league andimmediately become stars, immediately became the team's
number one or number two targets,and have continued to play that way under
their rookie deals. And why can'twe just go find another That's how Jacksonville

(36:59):
is literally playing it this year.Instead of being the team to invest huge
long term dollars in Calvin Ridley,they chose to invest much much smaller long
term dollars in Brian Thomas Junior asa first round pick, a player they
actually traded back for. But withKirk and Thomas Junior, they also were
the team that spent pretty good moneyI think too much money on Gabe Davis.

(37:22):
But is Trevor Lawrence set up anybetter to look better this year,
another year removed from the disastrous urband myer season still gets to work with
Doug Peterson has Trevor Ettien in thebackfield. I don't think it makes any
difference to him. I don't thinkanybody else does either, that his backup
quarterback was drafted just a handful ofpicks behind him a handful of years ago.

(37:44):
Mac Jones is now the backup inJacksonville to Trevor Lawrence, and in
the twenty one draft they were bothfirst round picks in the top fifteen.
But I don't think that has anyimpact on him. And I'll ask the
question, I keep asking until wehave an answer. Should the Jaguars commit
to Trevor Lawrence this offseason as mostpeople expect them to do? You don't

(38:05):
It sounds like you don't think theyshould. I do not think they should.
But if they don't, it's kindof like with Dak Prescott on a
much smaller scale, because even givenhis shortcomings, Jags of nowhere near the
success the Cowboys have just in thewinning standpoint, let alone what Dak has
done individually, Where do you gothe The alternative is so daunting. I

(38:28):
think that is the main reason alot of these teams will ink these cars.
Look at Daniel tru look at KirkCousins, just paying him more later
and let him prove that he's right, he deserved it, and prove you
wrong, and now you just haveto pay for it. Franchise or just
let him you have, you haveoptions, and those two years worth of
options, big years something to happena lot most franch most quarterbacks don't get

(38:53):
franchised. Happen to Kirk Cousins.And every time he gets a new contract,
it gets brought up that, mygod, this guy's I made a
ton of money without winning anything.He's the smartest quarterback and agent duo ever
it can play, you can playwell, especially a quarterback, not at

(39:13):
any other position. A quarterback underthe franchise tag, he can, to
a certain extent, dictate how thingsgo. A wide receiver in a franchise
contract year, a defensive end who'ssusceptible to injury, all those, I
think it's in their hands. SoI don't think it's this big, huge,
well, I can't control if Iplay well or not and if I
get the big money contract. AndI don't want to play for a one
year deal. I want to playfor a five year deal. I don't

(39:35):
want guaranteed money for one year.I want guaranteed money for five years.
Well, at the position with suchgreat importance on it, I know he
looks the part. I know he'ssix' five and I know it looks
like he can make all the throwsand on some days and in his playoff
win in the second half at leastit was one of those games. Yeah,
this guy is our guy. Wecan win with this guy. There's

(39:55):
too much in his years so far, or I don't knows. And if
I'm the GM and I'm the owner, I'm okay saying I don't know yet.
I'm not committed to this yet.Go prove us wrong. We'll pay
you. Just play for it likeeverybody else has to. You know,
it's interesting about this though, thisvery topic is that, and this is
being talked about up in Green Bayright now. He's sat for a lot

(40:20):
of this relatively to you know,to what Lawrence and others have done.
Jordan Love sat and now they're havingto talk about, Okay, do we
extend him, which it looks likethey should after one amazing year, But
what if he doesn't do that againand you've given him money, which is
what's being talked about going into trainingcamp having him extended right now. Trevor
Lawrence has played three seasons of footballfor the Jaguars and Jordan Love has played

(40:45):
one season of football while being onthe roster for three seasons with the Packers,
and I'd be much more inclined toget in bed long term with the
guy whose name is Love. Youweren't get in bed with Jordan Love,
That's what you're saying. That's whyI said it that way. Goodness.
I mean, I hate Trevor Lawrence, and I know it sounds like that,

(41:06):
and he's in a very different boat. I mean, if we're even
debating the merits of them, we'rekind of comparing them. Trevor Lawrence ninth
best quarterback in the AFC, andI'm not going through the whole list right
now, but I'll put him inthat area. That seems fair. Jordan
Love is the third best quarterback inthe NFC fourth Conference than anything. But

(41:27):
yeah, I mean, party hurtsJordan Love, Dak Jared Goff, I
mean Matt Stafford. I mean,I don't think the list is much longer
of who is potentially ahead of him. Now. He hasn't proven a lot
he's proven at one time, butI have confidence that this next year.
He's also playing with kids his receivingcourt. They're super talented and even more

(41:49):
talented this year, and if ChristianWatson stays healthy. I yes, I
like the future of Jordan Love morethan I like the future of Trevor Lawrence
as as simple as I can putit. Okay, very very interesting times
in the NFL at the quarterback position, especially as it pertains to extending or
not extending. Can't wait for havingthese conversations about c J. Stroud.

(42:10):
You think they'll just just be allnice and chummy and get to the number
that they need to agree upon.Both sides are happy right away. There
wasn't a whole lot of negative vibesaround the team the last time they did
this. It was That's what's interesting. It was with a guy who really
went rogue after everything that was surrounded, even the manner in which they did

(42:30):
it, I mean, justin Verlander'syou know, sending a message along about
how great it is to have herein Houston as coaches from Ibby wants that
one back like it's just unbelievable.It really went well, and they paid
him, I thought appropriately for wherehe was in his career, and I
think the same will happen here evenwith at least one of those people not
involved this time Col's involved again,but the executive vice president of Operations isn't

(42:55):
here anymore. That's funny. Eventhough they have a new AVP. His
name is Nick Yeah, states asthe GM Yeah, and he'll be the
one probably heavily involved in an extensionfor CJ. Stroud. In fact,
I know he will. All Right, four o'clock hour coming up next.
And so is your freedom this summerfreedom that's what it's all about, right,
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(44:23):
guys named Adam Talking Your Teams seriesAdam Clinton and Adam Wexler r D.
A Team A our number two hereon Sports Talk seven ninety. It is
a Thursday edition of the A TeamYou Got wex and AC with you until

(44:45):
six o'clock tonight, and uh,just to kind of recap some of the
things we discussed in our number one. The Astros with the off day,
going into a road series and doingso even more short hand than they were
before yesterday when they were already shorthanded, the amount of injuries that they have

(45:07):
kind of piled up both coming intothe season and then as well as what's
happened after this season has begun,whether or not there's anybody out there that
could even compete in this horrific game. That is, who has had the
most injuries, especially to their pitchingrotation. Don't know if that's out there
as a matter of fact, andwe talked about this yesterday. Wex some

(45:29):
of the teams ahead of them,which are most of them, but some
of the teams ahead of them inthe pecking order in the American League right
now are actually getting more healthy.Garrett Cole looking amazing in his rehab start,
and there's no reason to think hewouldn't add to an already fantastic season
the Yankees are having right now.They have not gotten a single pitch from
him, and they're sitting pretty Heis a little worrisome just in my mind

(45:50):
of I guess, not negativity,but just this is not normal. And
it's the same way I felt aboutjose or Keaty when they said what was
wrong with him and they said they'renot going to need to do Tommy John.
They said they're gonna see if it, you know, whatever they said,
but we knew the plan that theywere gonna take. And you know,
Garrett Cole, remember when everyone wefear that this could result in this
We thought his sees was over beforeit began, and they think otherwise.

(46:14):
Well, the Astros thought the verysame thing with her Katie, and they
got all the way to the pointthat he was in his last rehab appearance
ready to come back. He wouldhave pitched for the Astros the next time
he took them ound had everything gonewell and that final appearance. I'm not
hoping or wishing or anything or forecastingeven, but it is there are some
similarities in how these were handled.And again, I can't tell you how

(46:35):
comparable the actual injuries were, butthey're comparable enough that I bring them up
together, hopefully again for baseball's sake. It doesn't help us any and doesn't
help the American League any If hegoes out there and pitches four months of
cy young caliber baseball, then lookout and we'll see what happens in the
playoffs. But yeah, they're inan awesome position because most everything else has
fallen into place. They actually justgot DJ Lemayhew back in the last seven

(46:59):
to ten games. He's played verylittle of this season, and they basically
acted like they didn't miss them atall. They're on a seven game winning
streak They're twenty five games over fivehundred, and they have put a little
distance between themselves and the Orioles,who were basically given I did it,
gave them the division and thought theyit's just time for them to take the
next step. They took a bigstep last year and made it to the

(47:20):
postseason. We're the number one seed, and then they decided not to win
any games in the playoffs. Kindof almost like some of the questions for
the Timberwolves, like, do youguys have to lose colossally in the playoffs
or you to get where you need? Dude, We've been losing for years.
The Orioles have been losing for years, just not in the playoffs.
Well, now they have and I'msure they'll be in the playoffs. At
thirty nine and twenty two, theOrioles have the third best record in the

(47:44):
American League. The Guardians have beenawesome, The Royals have been very very
good. It's the Twins and theTigers and the Red Sox and the Rays
and the Jays that are all aheadof Houston that they need to catch and
to get into that last spot.A Mariner still have a healthy seven game
lead over Houston. Their injuries havebeen very limited. Also, they just

(48:04):
kind of had a slow offensive startwith a few individuals that really hasn't stopped.
Their pitching has had very little injuries. The Astros haven't seen one of
their starters. It's the guy whois throwing today, and it's probably a
good thing the Astros haven't seen himbecause he's been their best starter, Brian
Wu. I'm not sure if he'sgoing to complete the shutout today, but
it sure looks like it, andby the end of it, his area

(48:25):
will be roughly one even. That'show well he's pitched. This is his
seventh start of the year. Hejust happens to have been unavailable when they
played their first seven games against Houston. That's how strong their pitching is.
And just by the way this season, it almost seems inevitable that Gilbert or
Kirby or Castillo or Wu against somebodyis probably going to need time off they

(48:50):
got hurt. It just doesn't feellike anybody in the majors this year is
going to have a healthy season fromtheir expected top five starters. Six stars
just doesn't seem like it. Andif that is true, then what we've
discussed without a lot of information willhave to be put more under the microscope.
If nobody's going through the season withhealthy pitchers, then clearly some of

(49:12):
the things we're doing differently in baseballneed to be looked at, and we
need to take the two years worthof information we have on the pitch clock.
We need to take some of theinformation we have with how teams are
developing their pitchers. Like Ben Joyceis back in the majors now the reliever
for the Angels, hitting one,two, one oh three on the gun
regularly, the Hicks once with theCardinals now converted to a starter. We
saw what Mason Miller can do.It just doesn't seem like the long term

(49:37):
pitching hell of Verlander, Like twelve, thirteen, fourteen years worth of basically
never being hurt is something we're goingto see again from any team's worth of
pitchers. I think two years worthof data is enough to start rethinking things,
and I know they don't want togo backwards. We just saw a
two hour game. The last gamethe Astros played took one hundred and twenty

(49:58):
minutes and was complete full nine inningsfor both teams. The home team lost.
They played a full game, butif they believe this data indicates having
pitchers repeat their motion within fifteen seconds, especially in games where there aren't a
lot of base runners. And therewere not a lot of base runners for
the Astros with their two homers andthree other hits, Miles Michelis was just

(50:20):
mowing them down. It only tookninety three pitches, but the speed with
which they're being thrown. The clockwas at eighteen now in the second season,
which is less time when runners areon base. It wasn't twenty.
I don't think they're going to gobackwards because they probably love how short these
games are. But I'm not sosure. I would probably go eighteen and

(50:42):
twenty if I think I had enoughdata to say this is impacting pitchers.
It's pretty clear we have enough data. We have seen enough injuries. We've
seen the magnitude of these elbow andshoulder injuries that we need pitchers to have
more time to get a break.Maybe there's an additional disengagement. Maybe you
have to rethink the throws over thefirst rule, so some disengagements can happen
without necessarily being a throw over.All these things have to be put under

(51:06):
the microscope because I think they stillat the end, I hope they still
want the best product. And whenyou're ninth and tenth and eleventh starters in
the system have to be used,that's probably not the best product. How
ugly do you think this could potentiallyget? And what I mean by that
is obviously from an injury standpoint,it already is depending on who you talk
to, but you're talking about data, That's what it comes down to.

(51:29):
Do teams start like considering or Iguess the Players Association or whoever whatever entity
and I don't even know if thisis possible. Do lawsuits start getting thrown
out? Because if you're and thatwould be, by the way, that
would be the most rob Manfred Leeled Major League Baseball thing ever, just
to step in one more massive pileof you know what on his way out

(51:52):
the door. As we already havehis thank god a retirement date give or
take, we know the year atleast that these pitchers band together and sue
Major League Baseball for shortening their careersor legitimately hurting themselves trying to appease a

(52:15):
game that instead of actually finding otherways organically and what not to grow the
game, to make it more appealing. We're just going to ramp it up.
We're going to speed it up,literally, speed up a game that's
never been sped up before, forthe sake of shortening time of these games
and at the expense of some ofour most high dollar player's health. Well,

(52:37):
I mean yes and no, AndI only included one piece of data,
and that's totally unfair. There's otherthing. There are other things to
consider, and part of it iswhat we saw Renel Blanco go through and
what we've seen Tyler Glass now andjustin Verlander. I'll talk about they took
away something that probably people were veryused to in season. I don't mind

(52:59):
that they say, well, hecan't use this substance in that substance to
gain a feel for the ball.But they didn't do anything to accommodate for
that, and you should never changea rule like that in the middle of
a season. Now they have afull off season for it. So now
it's hard to determine, well,how much of this is what pitchers can
and can't use. Some people feelit's a complete and total taking advantage of
the rule. He's not just gettinghis hand sticky so he can throw the

(53:22):
baseball and feel comfortable that he knowswith where it's going. He's actually using
sixty stuff so he can enhance hisability to get hitters out and increase the
movement and increase the speed spin rate. There's total gray area there. But
again, all these things happen allat the same time. So I feel
like the Major League Baseball already hasa built in excuse for anything that the

(53:43):
Players Association might bring up, orAnyboddy threatening a lawsuit might No, they
don't have any definitivedt I'm saying twoyears is enough. It's is it?
I don't know. I think atsome point when is it enough to try
to push it back? And thebottom line for the league is we've generated,
we think, more interest in thegame because games are going more quickly
and people are more inclined to beseeing commercials in the seventh eight the ninth

(54:06):
inning of games and being in stadiumfor the seventh eight to ninth inning of
games than they ever have been becauseit's not ten thirty at night anymore,
it's nine thirty. You know,it's interesting about that. You're talking about
the small sample size of the timeperiods where you can't necessarily definitively point to
the injuries. What are the ratingslike since they implemented the pitch clock,

(54:30):
and even if the ratings do this, they go up or what have you.
That's not necessarily proof that it wasbecause the games are first. It's
not like I said, there's suchgray area there. And I think we've
all noticed is those who watch alot of games, which you probably should
listen to a lot of games.With those who watch a lot of games,
there are a lot more commercials beforethe commercial break airs. A there's

(54:53):
a base hit from Alex Bregman,now a word from our sponsor in between
pitches, because we can't fitted intoa normal it's smart. It's another way
to make revenue without impacting It's justa new place to add revenue. It's
the same thing as patches on jerseys. And it had to be done given
what we're talking about here, becauseyou were losing time, literally losing time.

(55:15):
All right, we will get toour signature segment. What's up with
that? On a Thursday edition ofThe eight Team? Coming up next,
coming up right now, another chanceto tell you guys about Tom's watch bar.
Now they call themselves Downtown's Ultimate Sportsbar, So if you're gonna say
something like that, you better backit up, and they certainly do.
We were out there last week onFriday. We're gonna be out there again

(55:36):
later on this month. They reallyare the ultimate sports bar, right there
at the corner of Caroline and Polk. Just a massive spread, just plenty
of room for you to spread outand enjoy what they have to offer.
The drink specials, buy one,get one, the absolutely fantastic food items
on the menu, and everything else. There's plenty of screens there, wex
you can watch a whole lot ofthings. You watch airpulling, you watch

(55:59):
airpull you can watch death diving,you can watch dwarf boxing, or you
can watch baseball, golf, tennis, football, basketball, or any of
the sports you enjoy because they're allon right there at Tom's Watch Bar.
Got great wings, enjoyed some ofthose the last time we're out there.
Burger's tacos, salads, fantastic macand cheese. Throw a little lobster in
there. They'll do that for you, and of course everything you could want

(56:22):
from behind the bar. Great cocktails, buy one, get one, drink
specials as well, and the bestdeal in astros baseball can be found right
there at Tom's Watch Bar. That'stheir free shuttle to and from Astros games.
You park in the Green Street Garage, which is right down the street.
They'll validate your parking. They're atTom's and then they will guide you
to the shuttle when you are readyto go to the game. You've never
had enough of Tom, so youwill come back to Tom's on that shuttle

(56:44):
after the game as well. Greatplace to enjoy everything you want in the
wide world of sports, right thereat Downtown's ultimate sports bar. It's Tom's
Watch Bar. Adam Clinton and AdamWexler. The A team now continues Sam
out a new signature segment called What'sup with that? What's up with that?

(57:10):
What's up? I say, what'sup with that? It is Thursday
around Cody Bell and your time.We have our signature segment each and every
day of the week. That isnow it is four twenty, So enjoy
yourself, mellow out. Are gonnaselling people to smoke weed? I didn't

(57:32):
quite clearly, even given the opportunity. I just wanted to see what you
would say. Some of you werelike me early this morning and we're already
up for absolutely no reason, sincetoday was actually the first day of summer
vacation for those that take their weeklyclasses from the Houston Independent School District,

(57:55):
so wrapped up, graduated later hidgood gree and now graduations for the senior
classes. It will take place allthroughout the weekend. But yeah, there's
no reason to be up early anymore. There's no horrible, extremely not nutritious
lunches to make or to drop anybodyoff at school anymore. But yes,
I was up this morning when WOJEwas dropping bombs on the world on the

(58:20):
morning of Finally, the NBA Finalsare here, and the NBA Finals pit
not the Lakers versus not the Lakers, and the biggest news of the day
in the NBA. As we're nowjust a couple of hours away from tip
off between not the Lakers and notthe Lakers. Everybody talking basketball, if
they're talking basketball, is talking abouthis report from this morning. Again.

(58:42):
He's using all the great terms,trying not to say it's a done deal.
They're putting a full court press onDan Hurley. The Lakers are to
become their new head coach. They'repreparing a massive offer. He even borrowed
from the Astros in his this reportingthis morning, saying the Lakers were relentless
in their pursuit of Dan Hurley,who is, of course still at this

(59:06):
moment the current head coach of theYukon Huskies men's basketball team. They won
the title this past year. Theywon the title the year before that,
also right here in Houston. Iwas on the court celebrating, watching them
celebrate here in Houston when they wonthat first of two NCAA championships. But
it does seem like a day afterthe other bomb dropper in NBA reporting said

(59:32):
they were very close to finalizing adeal and getting ready to announce in whatever
terms he chose to use. Shamson JJ Reddick that I basically called JJ
Redick the coach of the LA Lakers, when in fact, it seems like
now I should be calling Coach Hurleythe Lakers new head coach. Apparently coach
again. Deal not done. It'snot even a given yet that he is

(59:57):
going to accept their offer, eventhough it will be for a lot more
mo that he makes. He hasinformed his players reportedly of what is going
on, so as to be astransparent as possible for those that are big
followers of college basketball. Certainly Uof H here, you probably have noticed
that they're off season work for theupcoming twenty four to twenty five season this
fall. In spring, they areworking out, Teams are together, teams

(01:00:21):
are practicing, teams are in theweight room together. Yukon's team is doing
those things right now, so he'sinformed them of that. But JJ Reddick
had no coaching experience of any kind. Now they're going with a coach who
has no coaching experience at the NBAlevel. There's never usually perfect comparisons,
but a lot of names have beenbrought up. Coach Kyle Perry obviously has

(01:00:43):
been brought up. The pursuit ofcoach Krzyzewski many years ago by this Lakers
team. It never ultimately happened,and most other people are pointing to other
sports. I saw someone who's beenin the NFL for years saying I haven't
seen people bring up Nick Saban,who coached in college football extremely absolutely for
a long period of time before goingto the Dolphins, where I think most

(01:01:04):
would agree that was an unsuccessful tenure. Bobby Petrino had an unsuccessful, very
short tenure with the Falcons, andunlike coach Hurley, he was very not
upfront with his players when Patrino lefta note in their lockers about I'm already
gone bye bye. And I alsopushed back on both of those because both
Patrino for three years and Saban forseven years, they'd been NFL coaches,

(01:01:28):
assistant coaches, or a coordinator forseasons multiple seasons. They know what it's
like to be leading a team inthe NFL, working with players in the
NFL, working which a coaching staffin the NFL. Even though they came
from college directly, they had alreadyhad experience there. He has been maybe
Coach Hurley's been to an NBA practice. I don't think that's crazy to think

(01:01:49):
he's attended one, but he certainlyhasn't run one. He doesn't have anything
in place. He hasn't been throughNBA seasons. I imagine a play someone
like that probably hires coaches that do. But it's more about how do the
players react to a coach like that, And in this case, it's above
all that, how does the playerreact to a coach like that? Well,

(01:02:09):
James has already reacted in the caseof his post on Twitter. He's
so in all caps, damn goodalong with his staff, super creative with
their offense. Love it now.That wasn't a comment from today though,
No, it was a comment Ibelieve from an appearance that coach Hurley made

(01:02:30):
on JJ Redick's po's guest. Ironically, and the best part is the very
next paragraph of this story. Jameshas not had any conversations with the Lakers
about Hurley or Reddick, or thecoaching search in general for that matter,
A source familiar with the situation toldESPN's Dave mcminnimon. It's not the first

(01:02:52):
time that's been reported this offseason.Multiple reports have indicated he's not involved,
He isn't associated with Its possible tobelieve it, but it has been reported
multiple tek exact opposite of the reality. This guy is not under contract by
the Lakers, and they're going sofar to say they're widely considering drafting Bronni

(01:03:15):
James with one of their two firstround draft picks just to keep him.
You're gonna tell me that you're notconsulting with that guy who you desperately need
for no reason other than to basicallysell seats, because trust me, when
the Lakers suck, LA doesn't goto their games either, they don't have
some They haven't corner the market justbecause oh we've got got guys on the

(01:03:37):
floor wearing Lakers gear. We've gotto go. I can't speak from knowledge
because I did not put any timein so far since its release on the
fourth of the multi part series calledClipped, I haven't seen it yet,
so I probably have seen some clipsand it paints them in probably an accurate

(01:03:57):
light. But man, does itlook awful from some of the suff They
will still have the city, evenwith the Clippers moving into a new building,
even with the Clippers having more talent, Neither of those two teams are
doing anything with it, even thoughthey have a ton of it. At
the top five of the best twentyfive players in the league play for the
respective Los Angeles teams, and GeorgeLeonard, Hardin James and Anthony Davis and

(01:04:20):
get their participation in this year's postseasonwas very short lived. You mentioned Lebron
not being under contract because it's atleast not firmed up what his plan is
for next year the player option itis in his hands or if he plays
an additional season with the Lakers andtwenty four to twenty five at the current

(01:04:41):
under contract rate player option. Hecould decline it, he could accept it
at about fifty one million dollars.I again, I feel pretty strongly that
he's going to at least play forthem. If he might not play under
that, he might work out anotherone in one deal so he has another
player option in the following seas.But I think he'll be a Laker next
year. And whether or not he'sinvolved. Should we look at the pool

(01:05:06):
of coaches they've talked to and maybethat makes it more believable that coach Hurley
is the best of the bunch ora reasonable choice or are they just grasping
here and saying, hey, wejust want to go outside the box.
Well, James, is it Barrego? James Barrego. I actually think he
would be a good choice. Ithink it was foolish for Charlotte to have
let him go. So James Barrego, JJ Reddick, Sam Cassell, David

(01:05:30):
Adelman, those are the other peoplethat they have interviewed. It doesn't bowl
you over, It doesn't seem ridiculousthat you would land on a two time
championship winning coach in college. Butby the way, what's wrong with Sam
Cassell? Because he is the proverbial. He's Eric Bienemy without anything. He

(01:05:51):
doesn't carry around baggage though. Well, but there's got to be a reason
he's always in the thick of anything. Joe Aspota, before the Astros promoted
him, he'd been on how manyinterviews and come in second? How many
times? I think Sam Cassell's probablybeen on triple the amount of coaching interviews
that Joe Spotted got. Maybe he'sbeen coaching for so long for him to

(01:06:14):
not have a head coaching position atthis point just fall into one. There's
so many bad teams out there.I don't know when the idea inside the
league would have shifted, but Idefinitely can believe that it did. Who's
he been coaching with for much ofhis career Boston which head coach, uh
Doc Rivers Bingo. Yeah, maybeearly on his career when people didn't realize

(01:06:35):
that Doc Rivers wasn't good Joe buyassociation, They're like, well, if
you're working with him, maybe we'dthink less of you. And I think
that's awful, but it might betrue. Yeah, And he hasn't been
with Doctor for all of those years, and he wasn't this past go round
either. I don't know. Idon't have an answer for you. I
mean, it seems like to mehe reaches his players very well. He's

(01:06:57):
good in the on court aspect ofteaching. Again, communication usually sits at
the top of the list, Andall indications I have from all of his
stops and all the players and othercoaches were all top notch. But I
wonder when at the end of theline, even is there for him before
job one, because at some pointhe'll stop getting interviews. Yeah, that's
usually how it goes. All right, we'll take a quick time out.
There is some other NBA news.There's something that a former Rockets chirping about

(01:07:23):
specifically. Well, you hear whathe had to say when we come back
right now, though, here's whatI have to say. You need to
get your hands on the best checkingaccount in the city of Houston, and
the only way to do that isto go to the website of the Federal
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(01:07:46):
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(01:08:09):
they're earning you up to two percentinterest on the account itself. They're throwing
in shopping rewards, they're throwing intravel and leisure discounts. They're just really
making it worth your while. Whywouldn't you take advantage of it? Why
wouldn't you get a checking account thatworks for you as opposed the other way
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website. Get started by opening youraccount online with a user friendly, easy

(01:08:32):
application located right there. It's PRIMEWAYFCUdot com. Visit primeway FCU dot com
today. Hey, it's a menTop Sun Every Rockets game Sports Talk seven
to ninety streaming on the iHeartRadio apphome of Rockets Basketball. When James Harden

(01:08:53):
eventually retires ringless, what will behis legacy because he's been an MVP,
he's gotten this close to the NBAFinals a second time. Wait, oh,

(01:09:16):
okay, I got you. Wellhe was he was in the finals,
right, But that's he has theNBA Finals playing experience. Good NBA
Finals playing experience. Yes. Infact, people forget he was the biggest
reason they were in the NBA Finalsthat year after he took it to the

(01:09:38):
Spurs. He was, he was. He was a big part of what
they did until their GM decided wedon't need you, but you don't.
You don't remember. The only experienceagainst the Spurs that James Harden has ever
had in the playoffs was getting blockedby Monogenobili and then having a no show
the very next game in Houston.That's all off the bench in the Western
Conference Finals in game two the ohthey did not win that game. He

(01:10:00):
had a thirty point night off thebench for the Thunder. Then they won
the next four games and played inthe finals. How did he do in
those four games? Uh? Thefinals experience for James hard don't know the
games leading up to the finals.Oh, in the four games they won
in succession? Uh huh? Imean he didn't have any more thirty point
games twenty five. Again, hecame off the bench in all of them,

(01:10:25):
as he had done that entire partof his career. He had between
eleven and twenty points in each ofthose four games. He was six Man
of the Year that year. Correct. He shot nine for thirteen from three
point distance in the four games combined. People weren't shooting him with quite as
much regularity as they do these days, nor was he apparently geez, thirteen

(01:10:45):
three point shots, that's like onehalf for him as a starter in Houston.
Yep. But anyway, what's hislegacy, like, He's clearly was
one of the best. Need tocome up with a Hall of Fame speech?
Well, yeah, but everybody goesto the Hall of Fame. I'm
in the Hall of Fame. Iam look it up. I mean,

(01:11:05):
what's He's a scoring champion. Sohe's been the best at something during his
career. He's had multiple postseason runs, He's been to the finals. He's
played on two different teams that werephenomenal, and then since he left the
Rockets, probably a little underwhelming teamperformances in the playoffs. Maybe some of
it him, maybe at other teammatesEt cetera. How much different is it

(01:11:28):
than say, Charles Barkley Barkley winningrebounding titles or being among the best rebounders
in the league for a long periodof time, being the best player on
his team in Phoenix and coming upshort many times, playing in the finals
but not winning a title. Comingto training camp. Fact so is the
narrative is the legacy of the legacyof Charles? Is he's one of the
first names that comes to mind?Best players to not win a title?

(01:11:54):
Is should James not be someone youthink of quickly? And do you yeah?
No's that's very good? And doyou think it's interesting that Karl Malone
basically is right there near the topof it. He's top three scoring all
time, and yet it's always Charlesthat comes to mind before Karl Malone.
You talk about guys that don't haverings, and even though Carl's teammate doesn't
have a ring, Tell me whatyou think of the all time scenario?

(01:12:16):
And I could say it simply,or I could say it my way.
I'm gonna say it my way,of course. So the difference between Carl
and Charles kind of perception wise,what do you think we'd be thinking right
now if they were about to getrid of Inside the NBA featuring Shaq,
Kenny and Love Smith Karl Malone,Love Smith. If Karl Malone was this
twenty year analyst on Inside the NBAand not Charles, he would have lasted

(01:12:42):
ten seconds. Ernie comes back frombreak and he's chatting it up with Kenny
and Shaq, and he goes,Carl, what did you think about that
Suns Mavericks game tonight? What doyou want me to say that I thought
about it? That was the dumbestinterview ever in the last dance. The
bottom line is, that's a funnyway, I guess saying it. He's
not liked, not even unlikable personality. I think to a lot of people

(01:13:04):
he wasn't awful to deal with oranything. And then he obviously has things
in his life that people should notlike him for and don't yeah, impregnating
underage girls, among other things.I shouldn't really have to say that second
part, So to me, HardenBarkley the Jazz Men Clyde before he got

(01:13:30):
to Houston would have been there forthe same reasons. One of the best
scorers in the league. But heagain should his legacy be so much different
than a guy like James. AndJames also, to me, has something
that most of these guys don't.The league is officiated, played and regulated
by written rules differently because of JamesHarden and things. He could do.

(01:13:55):
Things he learned to do, thingshe worked harder than anybody else to do
so he could take advantage of whatthe rules currently were. The step back
jumper isn't something he invented, buthe perfected it. The idea of the
swipe through and how I'm going toget to the free throw. He wasn't
cheating. He was saying, theseare fouls, you have to call them.
He goes to change the game.This is the debate between Trump and

(01:14:18):
Hillary where yes, because she wasaccusing him of taking advantage of the tax
code and how and she was shewas saying that as if it was a
bad thing. And he goes,of course I do, and so do
all of your donors. That's whatJames Harden said. Of course I do
the follow through I take advantage ofLike Jalen Brunson is a donor, he

(01:14:41):
takes advantage of a lot of Hejumps backwards like Trey Young, Harry harm.
Why shouldn't you The amount of backlashhe got it like it's ruining the
game, or he's making the gameugly, he's trying to outscore the other
team. He's trying to win.And he did a lot of be it
a lot in the regular season.It wasn't sexy and people didn't like it
because of that, and there wasall the funny, this whole James Harden

(01:15:03):
thing up. Did he say something? Yeah he did. What did he
say, Dan? That I wasa winner, that I was a teacher?
You know what I mean? ThatI had a different love for the
game. You know what I mean, like put the money aside. I
really enjoy and love the game ofbasketball and playing it. So whether it's
you know, being with the kidsyou know here or you know when I
travel, you know, other placesin Europe, when I go to China,

(01:15:26):
I just want, you know,people to understand it and I understand
how much I really love and enjoythe game of basketball. Wrong, not
a winner, not a winner.And he said China, they're not going
to remind they're not going to rememberJames Harden as a winner. But because
he didn't wink if Charles Barkley asa winner. That's so I totally agree
with you in the sense that you'reusing it. It's it's kind of unfair

(01:15:48):
because we're treating winning like it onlymeans one thing. You probably have to
win a title to be called awinner, and that's super limiting. And
that's rings culture. It just is, that's where we are. And here's
the problem, or it's not aproblem. But we just got done talking
about how spectacular career Charles had.It was. I think people forget sometimes

(01:16:09):
go back and watch, hey kids, go fire up the YouTube machine,
go watch what he was able todo right there with Robber You and I
almost got into this fight one daytalking about him and Rodman being necking net
for leading their league and rebounding yearin, year in and year out.
And yet it's not even just thekids I just mentioned, it's us.

(01:16:30):
He's remembered, will be remembered farmore for his media career and it's not
even close. And without doing thefull research on it, and I'm not
even gonna ask the Westler research teamto get in on this, I believe
he's the current leader Charles Barkley inmost nicknames on Basketball Reference, Black Jesus,
fifteen, black Cat fifteen. Thoseare two of the fifteen. The

(01:16:53):
word black is included in zero ofhis nickname. I don't believe you a
color of any kind is included inzero of his nicknames. Is any of
his nicknames? Do they involve?Yes, the round Mound of Rebound.
That's his most it's not even first, Sir Charles, of course, Sir
Charles. He's like Elton John.He's knighted. He's like Elton John,

(01:17:17):
the Sir, the Prince of Pizza. He's like he's like Elton John,
the Wide Load from Leeds. He'slike Elton John, the bread Truck.
He's like Elton John Boy Gorge.He's like Elton John, good Time Blimp.
No one ever called him George,the Incredible Bulk. He's like Elton

(01:17:38):
John, the Leaning Tower of Pizza. Should I continue? How many are
there? I told you there's fifteen, but how many left? Five?
Go ahead. He's like Elton Johnthe chuck Wagon. He's like Elton John,
the Crisco Kid. He's like EltonJohn Love Boat. He's like Elton
John Food World and the chuck Wagon. You said the chuck Wagon, I

(01:18:02):
thought, then I meant to saya ton of fun. There you go.
Nobody called him the tug boat.We love boat. For those who
are longtime listeners of the A teamknow this is why we reference the Basketball
Reference nicknames because inevitably half of themare certainly made up, never been used,
never heard before, never be heardfrom again. Well, black Jesus

(01:18:24):
has been heard before. Reggie Millerknows all about that. Just ask him
sometime. Adam and Adam are very, very dedicated fans, such big fans.
In fact, one of them actuallypays for his favorite porn. Paying
for porn, now that's dedication.Folks. Back to eighteen premium on Sports

(01:18:45):
Talk seven ninety, you're gonna getyour money's worth. Hey, we got
people weighing in on what we weretalking about with the like Okay, Brody
ways in talking about James hard,no grit, no heart, lazy,
That's why he doesn't come to mindfor most people. In my opinion,

(01:19:05):
he's the greatest lazy player of alltime. And I think, without putting
words in his mouth, he followedit up. He doesn't care if I
read this. He's oppositely, he'sbasically the opposite of how we're trying to
raise our kids. Talking about JamesJames Harden. Yeah, and he's talking
strictly about basketball. I think,you know, like it's it's weird to

(01:19:30):
say, and I think it's anaccurate word. That's the weird part.
It's weird to say he's lazy whenthe guy was averaging how many points per
game? And scoring thirty or morein how many consecutive games in a row
that year and dragging I mean theteam he dragged to the Western Conference finals
when Dwight was out for like fortytwo games. I mean, who is

(01:19:53):
the point guard Pablo Prigioni was gettingsignificant rotation minutes? I mean, who
is Jones? Terrence Jones, theguy who steps on bums in Portland?
That was your starting four. Sothink about the comparison we've made for every
year that Luke has been in theleague. We've compared him to James for

(01:20:13):
the way he plays, the wayhe's impossible to defend, the way the
way he's the ways it appears thathe might not be in the best shape.
Maybe, And then every time wehave the debate, we have to
add one part of it that separatesthe two. And it's why we're gonna
watch Luca in the finals tonight.His performances in the playoffs, especially as
the series get into there is notomorrow or it's time to send the other

(01:20:34):
team packing, like Games five,six, and seven. He's awesome and
James isn't. He has a history, long history for the majority of his
career, whether he was in Houstonor in the places he's been since.
And I think there's a little bitof separation between his career as a reserve,
a sixth man, in his careeras the best player or close to

(01:20:57):
because clearly the last couple of yearsBrooklyn, Philly, etc. La wasn't
obviously the best player when Durant andIrving were his teammates, or Embiid was
a teammate, or now George andLeonard are teammates, but he was still
a part of this. His performancesas the series get further into it.
He's not a good player anymore,or player he was three days ago.
He's playing terrible basketball, missing shots, not taking shots, not distributing for

(01:21:23):
the most part the way he has. So you can maybe say, well,
he had an off shooting night,but he still set up his teammates.
Well, he's still rebounded. Well, we know he doesn't play any
defense anymore and hasn't. That's thedifferent. Luca plays no defense, but
Luca is playing at his best stillas the series are about to be determined.
And I know the beginning of theseries matters also, but if you're

(01:21:44):
not sweeping anybody to avoid the gamesfive, six, and seven, well
then they matter more because this iswhen you're trying to advance. You can't
advance in game one, you can'tadvance in game two. You can have
an off night, you can havea great night. Teams adjust, and
when they adjust to him, they'rebetter than him. That's the difference.
And that's why, however you mightperceive James, there's no way you could

(01:22:05):
eliminate that from the conversation. It'stoo big of a part of it.
It's not even just winning a title. It's that all these teams that have
had him as a big part ofit have seen him falter and of the
vast majority of his late game series, he's been brutal. That's why it's

(01:22:26):
funny when he said with a straightface, he wants to be remembered as
a winner just for the type ofjust purely at basketball skills, totally fair
Olympian, one of the he wasthe best player in the league, probably
for a three year stretch. Atleast he was one of the five best
players for a seven or eight yearstretch. All those things sound like winner
stuff, but winning is the literal. What are you winning? You're not

(01:22:47):
winning the ultimate prize. The ultimateprize in NBA championship is Bill Walton would
say, all right, we've gotfootball at five coming up next. Also,
I have extremely extremely important information.I need to verify it so that
I don't make sure that I'm justspouting out lies on a live radio station.

(01:23:10):
But if this is true, isthe A Team. You can't just
say stuff that we can't verify wrong. I will absolutely pass that along before
probably I'll probably date I'll do thisand in case you missed it, because
it's a very good place to dothis kind of thing, there is a
former Houston astro that I think youguys might want to get reacquainted with here

(01:23:30):
in and around the greater Houston areathis week, and we'll tell you about
that next. Two lifelong Houston sportsguys named Adam talking your teams. Adam
Clinton and Adam Wexler are the ATeam, A you're right at Bustle Football.

(01:23:55):
It's five o'clock. Some o'clock football. Professional footballs in America is a
special game football at five here becausethat's what we do here each and every

(01:24:16):
day in the five o'clock hour.To begin things, let's talk a little
bit of NFL football or otherwise didn'treally get into some of the latest college
football news. Over the last coupleof days, they announced the setup the
month long NFL style playoff scenario thatwill be in place this year. The
NFL now has seven teams from eachconference need thirteen games to eliminate those fourteen

(01:24:41):
teams with one left standing. Collegefootball now has twelve teams in the playoffs
for the upcoming season. Eleven teams. Games must be played, teams must
be eliminated so we can celebrate theaforementioned James Harden winner and champion. They
will have literally a month of playoffaction this upcoming year. First round games,

(01:25:01):
quarterfinal games, semifinal games, andthen ultimately the national title game,
which we had here in Houston ayear ago under the previous format, a
weekend of semifinals, and then thefinal. That was the entire postseason from
a playoff perspective bowl game still inplace, and an announcement on those dates
and times also made earlier today.The bowl game played right here at NRG

(01:25:25):
Stadium, The Texas Bowl, willbe December thirty first. It will be
a two thirty pm kickoff. Itis on a day where the college football
playoffs will be played. Also,by the way, the opening weekend of
the college football playoffs December twentieth andthen twenty first, that is a Friday
and then a Saturday, will coincidewith one of the marquee games on the

(01:25:48):
Houston Texans schedule. That Saturday isthe day they play the Kansas City Chiefs
in advance of their Christmas Day game. I'll probably be there, and that
is the day where the second,third, and fourth college football games of
that opening weekend of the playoffs willbe played. They'll play the night before
game one on Friday, and thenthree games on the twenty first. Of

(01:26:11):
course, the first of those gamesthat will coincide with the Texas Texans Chiefs
game. I don't know who's goingto be in any of those games.
Those will be home games for thefour teams with better seeds that weekend,
and then they'll get into the finaleight that are remaining with those teams that
were waiting for the four winners.But this is kind of where we're headed.
I think we're ultimately headed to moreheadaches, but probably we'll see a

(01:26:35):
crowned champion well worth it. Andcertainly, you know team like just this
past year, you know had fiveand six, You had Florida State in
Georgia. You know Florida State.We know the reasons why they weren't a
part of it due to injury,and they clearly weren't the same team that
had run through everybody. And Georgiaplayed in an additional game that they lost

(01:26:56):
that basically was an elimination game.Alabama beat them and eliminated Georgia from the
four team playoff. That cannot happen, I wouldn't think to a team in
Georgia's position, but it can happento the other team in the game.
You go into your championship game inyour conference, one of these major conferences,

(01:27:17):
and the SEC now has Oklahoma andTexas a part of it. If
Georgia goes through the season twelve andzho that championship game in the SEC means
absolutely positively nothing to their playoff berthcertainly would affect their seeding and maybe their
road to a championship, probably notnecessarily a harder road in terms of who
they play or how to get there. But the other team, the non

(01:27:39):
undefeated team or the lower ranked teamthat's in a title game, well,
they're playing to make the playoffs.It would be an elimination game potentially for
them, and they might even losetheir spot to a team they clearly were
better then during the regular season intheir own conference, because the team that
was worse than them benefited from notmaking the title game and thus potentially suffering

(01:28:02):
an elimination from the playoffs loss becausethey're not even in the game. How
soon do they fix this? Well, they have to watch it unfold that
way. It's almost it's not inevitable. It seems likely that with one of
the conferences that could play out thatway. It's also less of an issue.
It's more of an issue when thefifth best team in the country is

(01:28:23):
say, denied a chance to winit all, than the thirteenth best team
in the country is denied a chanceto win it all. Yeah, but
I mean, there's it feels likeevery time we turn over this new iteration
of whatever version of the playoff itis. I mean, I'm I'm I'm
old enough to remember when computers determinethe champion. That's awesome. I love

(01:28:44):
that. Oh man, I mean, do you but seriously, you remember
some of the talk radio conversation aboutthat Sports talk radio about fractions of a
decimal point and oh man, itwas bad. Well, this is the
simplest way to kind of answer thequestion. Last year they brought in major

(01:29:04):
sponsor TV dollars for their three playoffgames. This year there are eleven playoff
games. You wonder why. Imean, it's not hard to figure out.
But even having said that, likeit just always feels like around the
corner is the next argument as tohow we can make this better. And

(01:29:27):
you know, it's kind of likethe eighteen games for the NFL season,
like it's always gonna be something.Now. I don't think we get to
a point where the NFL ends upadding twenty games someday, I mean eighteen,
there's going to be pushback and thatthat's definitely the way that I would
describe it is very different than collegefootball. They're trying to create a little
bit of it is trying to createmore teams to get I mean, can

(01:29:48):
you imagine if the NFL had fourplayoff teams, and even in a thirty
two team league, that's nothing.There's fourteen teams now that make the playoffs
in a thirty two team like theNBA, and after sixteen games, I
think we know who those teams are, and some teams lose out on a
tiebreaker. We now have seventeen gamesto determine it. The eighteenth game,
to me, has nothing to dowith getting the best teams to the playoffs.

(01:30:11):
Everything to do with money. Yeah, and that's fine, and I
definitely think it's happening. I thinkthere will be if you reduce it to
two preseason games. I still don'thave that big of a problem with it,
because at the end of the day, you're charging the ticket price is
the same. Well, what's theproblem is you might actually be giving the
consumer the same thing, unknowingly theworst of a bad product, because people

(01:30:34):
are out exactly the preseason games.You know it go out on purpose.
We know they're healthy, but they'renot going to be here. Well at
the end, they're out because they'redead. And when they can't make it
through the season, you're also sayingthey can't make it through the playoffs.
So my team built to win inthe playoffs, totally capable of winning it,
super Bowl champion. I'm watching themplay, this is awesome. And

(01:30:54):
then because of an additional game andI just couldn't make it through the season.
I got hurt in a game wedidn't used to have. Well,
now team can't win the Super Bowl. Well, what's funny about that is,
in a weird, roundabout way,the teams that are the best are
are proven as such and can thereforerest players of consequence in those last few
games because they played so well.If you're that dombin now, I get

(01:31:15):
it. It is the biggest parodyfilled league. So you're not going to
get that more often than not becauseit's just the way it is. The
look at the Texans last year asopposed to the year before, And I
get it, CJ was there andall that. But you know, if
you don't want your players getting hurtin that game and you can afford to
sit them for it, by allmeans, yeah, I don't know that
too many teams will be or willbe in that. We already have it

(01:31:36):
clinched, like the number one spot. That's one thing that the seven team
playoff did actually add. It addedthe likelihood that the team was that was
at number one wouldn't be locked up, and if they weren't, you got
to play. That's a pretty bigdeal to have the number one seed in
a week off versus every other team. You're the only team in the whole
conference that only needs to win twogames to get to the super Bowl.

(01:31:56):
That's a pretty big advantage, humongousif you asked me. And so any
team that has the opportunity to getit, but needs to play and go
win to get it, will playthose Week seventeen players in order to make
sure that happens. I think we'vereally seen some pretty sensational final week of
the season games these last couple ofyears. We saw it firsthand last year.
It was an elimination game Texans Coltsprime time, felt like a playoff

(01:32:18):
game. It was awesome, andwe see that they're able. They'll do
it again this year. I'm surethere will be a game or two that
one will be shifted to Saturday nightthat has huge You're in if you win,
you're out if you lose, andthen a bunch of other games.
They set up all these AFC games, normally the noon games, and all
the NFC games if they can.They're all three twenty five and maybe there's
one other game you make, theSunday night game, but they usually try

(01:32:40):
to avoid a Sunday night game.It's awesome. I think that they're set
up currently. Well, I meanI kind of have always been in favor.
Baseball's kind of gone the other wayto limiting the teams that make the
playoffs. It is exciting. Itdoes give more teams an opportunity in baseball.
It's giving teams which with much worseregular seasons and opportunity like the Arizona
Diamondbacks showed a year ago. Andit's it's hard to win in baseball.

(01:33:04):
So the more teams that get there, the more playoffs series that have to
be won, the more disappointed bestteams in baseball we're gonna have, because
it's hard to win baseball series,no matter how many games you won in
the regular season, no matter youcould be twenty games better than another team
over one hundred and sixty two gamesslate, but any given weekend you could

(01:33:25):
lose to anybody. The Angels justswept the Padres the last three days.
The Angels aren't better than the Padres, but they were for three days,
and that's how I mean. Idon't think the Rangers were bad by any
means. They swept their way intothe Astros series. They wipe the floor
with two different teams. The onlyteam they gave them the Astro resistance was

(01:33:45):
the Astros. Baseball can do that, and it almost always will NFL.
I'm okay with the additional teams.We've gone from where we had a lot
smaller playoff picture. We now haveseven teams for both conferences. Now have
almost half the league, fourteen outof thirty two making the play season,
and I'm totally fine with it.You know, a nine to eight team
from one division might make it.I might do some different things with how
you earn home field advantage. Istill hate that it's automatic when you win

(01:34:09):
your division, when you don't necessarilyhave the fourth best record of the teams
that get to the postseason. Itwould have impacted the game that we watched
the Texans last year. The Brownshad a better record than the Texans and
beat them, which so whatever tiebreakeryou want to use, I would have
I think that should be used thetiebreaker they actually uses did you win the

(01:34:29):
division? Well, if you did, you're one, two, three,
or four. Case closed. Idon't think that should be the rule personally,
and I probably I would say thathome field advantage probably is the most
advantageous in football than any sport.Do you think that's because you also have
sometimes not here in Houston with apermanently closed roof. But how much of
a home field advantage was it forKansas City in their opening game this year

(01:34:53):
when they played in negative billion temperaturesagainst the Dolphins. Yeah? Yeah,
But what I'm saying, I'm morepointing to the fact that the way the
game is played, the way anNFL football game is played. Cadence being
able to hear offense at work.Yeah, well, if you're into those
kinds of lame graphics, you cando that too. But like Astros went

(01:35:16):
into Philly, Oh my god,how are they gonna win? They're not
even they threw a freaking no hitter. I mean that proves my point right
there. NBA, I don't know, it's a little different, depends on
the market. I mean, theRockets going up to Salt Lake City,
all those years, the crowd wasjust as disgusting as the five players on
any given moment on the floor.So I but I just think that the

(01:35:40):
noise and all that factors in moreso when you're talking about especially an offensive
team and a road hostile environment.So uh, yeah, that all factors
into it. But bottom line ismoney is money when it comes to all
of this. Yeah, our Footballat five segment locked in on what will
take place in December for college footballand January for NFL football. Today is

(01:36:02):
June sixth. Can you tell wehope it's football season sooner rather than later.
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QC Kinetics, We now return toAdam Clinton and Adam Wexelerth on Sports Talk
seven ninety. I know we hada pre planned method for how to get
in case you missed it off andrunning I in case you missed it because

(01:37:57):
I didn't tell you. Over thelast handful of days, I've actually run
into two different people associated with theAstros organization, just out and about in
the city of Houston. I nevereven brought it up on the show.
I was eating dinner on Saturday night, and we were on our way out
of the restaurant, and I wasactually having a conversation with somebody I was
with about how the Astros had donethat day. Was the day they played

(01:38:19):
in the afternoon. I was literallysaying these words were coming out of my
mouth. As I passed this otherperson. I said, yeah, and
they hit four home runs today andthey won. And then I said,
and Robert had great calls of allfour of them. And then I turned
to my left, I said,hey, Robert, how do you do
it? Because Robert Ford was heheard you? He did. He had
slowly turned around. And then whenyou walked off, you said I did

(01:38:41):
not. I did not, butyeah, I ran into him. And
then this morning. I was ina local sporting goods establishment and does it
rhyme with mix? It does notrhyme with mix, although I go there
a lot. Does it rhyme witha shmat at me? It definitely does
it? Definitely it rihmes with that, Yes it does. Okay. I

(01:39:01):
was on my way down an aisleand I heard from behind me a customer
say, oh, thanks a lot. I appreciate it, and the salesperson
assistant said, all right, havea great day. I recognized the voice
immediately, and he was making hisway out the store. Out of the
store. It was Craig Bigio,like Tipp's cap and move on, he,
I mean to the sales assistant,not to me. Oh okay,

(01:39:24):
was he wearing a cap? No, no hat? Do you remember?
Because I know it was us onthe air back in the day when I
think it might have been the twentynineteen World Series, and we did shows
outside of that establishment that no longerexists because Jim Crane took a bulldozer to
it and put a parking lot down. And Bigio is walking across the street

(01:39:45):
and we're on a loud speaker andI'm talking and I go in mid sentence
and go oh, and hey,it's Craig Bigio and he goes does ah,
like, come on, man,I'm gonna get mobbed out here right
A note, when I saw Craigthis morning, I think when he left,
that left me and like one otherperson in the store. This is
like right as they opened, sothat's why he went in there. Then
it's possible speaking of former Astros herewe go. I don't know if this

(01:40:10):
is true. For those of youflying around on the X platform today,
you may know about this. Imean it has to be right. I
mean, if you're gonna put itout there, it must be. Like
I said earlier, if it's onthe A team, we can't talk about
it unless we can verify it wrong. This is from the Facebook group Houston
Astro's Nation, So that's right rightaway, you're talking about a screencap from

(01:40:34):
a Facebook page. On Twitter,you follow me yet Houston Astros Nation and
specifically Joshua Wilson see plausible deniability.This was all josh He writes the following.
Mike Fires is playing softball at BigLeague Dreams in League City this weekend.

(01:40:58):
Ten dollars to get in. Dowhat you want with this information.
You look like in a snitch.Thanks Dave. Ah, I'm not driving
down there to yell at him orwhatever I'm actually appears. I did not
realize this. I somehow am amember of this Facebook group they invited.

(01:41:20):
You must be a long time ago, and you didn't send a request,
is what I'm saying. Somehow ithappened. I'm not a level one contributor.
I can tell you that right now. You're not a top fan with
a diamond emoji. I do know. Some people have asked if they can
borrow a Chuck E Cheese costume fortheir as they head on out there.
Our own RAM shirts responded, haven'tprinted these in a while, but could

(01:41:44):
dot dot dot dot dot with apicture of a shirt that prominently says Mike
fires, is a rat and isscared to face Houston. I have that
shirt. Some of the other responseswere not as nice to this, and
I just why I did. Thefirst thing that comes to mind, if
your Mike fires, why would youever set foot in the city again,

(01:42:08):
ever for any reason, even ifyou like had family here and you raised
here, which would make what youdid even worse. But I just don't
understand this guy. And I neverwill. And many teammates or other people,
players, coaches, analysts, announcers, they said similarly. Even though

(01:42:29):
what he said was true, becausepeople have said, yes, this happened,
there's still more often than not goto the I can't believe the code
that was broken. Well, evenif you want to go down that road,
fine, give your ring back,the one you're smiling with and cheesing
with and all the pictures. Youhad no problem taking that ring that's tainted

(01:42:50):
according to you. I just didit from the betterment of the game with
a stupid, cracking, weasel voice. Oh man, listen, I don't
wish any ill will upon anyone,but he's stupid doing this. If this
is actually happening, which my WorldSeries ring definitely worth the wait. Thank

(01:43:10):
you to the Houston Astros organization tohelp make my dream become a reality.
Hashtag blessed and then he hashtag lifelongdream Yeah. And then he took a
giant bite of cheese right after thatpicture. I did find some old clips
of him a hat tip to SpaceCity Sports, who I'm gonna guess it
was doctored because this is when hemade his first appearance, when he was
on a different major league team andhe was gonna address it and asked him

(01:43:33):
a question, and the answer wasthen dubbed with just just a rat eating
cheese. Very funny. The scenefrom uh, the scene with Jack Nicholson
from The Departed comes to mind.Got a yeah, freaking rad in here.
That an all time favorite. Ohit's so good. That might be

(01:43:54):
a top ten movie for me.Scorsese, Right, if you've got the
times, it's a long one.Well it's not longer than The Irishman,
which is twelve hours. Is therea difference? Like it's the same thing,
right, No, the same movie, No different care, not even
a little bit the similar No guns, accents, shooting, I mean,
drugs, violence, underworld of thosethings. Yeah, same movie. Watch

(01:44:17):
why why on some of these responsesthough, I can't ignore it. No
one over eighteen gets in? Mustbe a sixteen you girls tournament? See,
Probably just an elaborate way for himto meet under age I mean,
come on, people, what areyou insinuating here? What else do we

(01:44:38):
have? All Right? So yougot to touch on this a little bit
earlier. By the way, TheIrishman an hour and a half too long?
Like how long is the running timeon that. I think it's like
four hours. I'm gonna look itup. I mean, between that and
him supposedly being a young guy andbeating up the store owner, those were
scenes we did. Plus they pulledHole Cow spoiler alerts easy. They pulled

(01:45:00):
Joe Peshy, not out of retirement, but out of the grave. It
was awesome. I'll tell you this, three hours and twenty nine minutes.
And I've seen Casino like a thousandtimes. It does not seem like a
three hour movie. It's two fiftyeight. That's because Sharon Stone is so
unnerving in her performance. When sheloses it at the end in the closet,
Oh my gosh. First of all, she's just well when the cops

(01:45:24):
let her take his stuff, comeon now, I mean she's speeding.
You can't get her for that.It was ridiculous, speeding into the driveway
and almost through the living room.In other words, The Departed wins only
two hours and thirty one minutes.What else? All right? Well,
you can either keep the money,get the hammer, you can walk out
of here, and you can't haveboth, all right, So you got
touched on a little bit earlier.What we can expect from the start of

(01:45:45):
this series tomorrow between the Astros andAngels. Not likely for Kyle Tucker,
but according to Alex Bregman after yesterday'sgame, you can expect him just take
some swinging as it kind of issuper tender and sore. Um, I
want to just double check everything checkedout good. So you're ready to go
on you ready to go on Friday? So there you go. Number two
in the lineup tomorrow night. Whywas he gonna win tunnel? Are you

(01:46:09):
convinced he'll be number two in thelineup tomorrow night? Well, not number
two in the lineup, but Imean we can. He's wearing the number
two in the program, number onein your heart, number two over the
PA. Gotcha? Okay? Whatelse? All right? So Josh Jacobs
and the Green Bay Packers hamster fellout the wheel there for a second,
gonna take on the Philadelphia Eagles inBrazil. Sound Pelou Corinthians Arena is where

(01:46:33):
they're going to play on the Fridaynight of opening weekend at the NFL.
He was on the green Light podcastwith Chris Long and he had some interesting
information that the NFL has apparently givento players and personnel that are going to
be a part of both teams.Just take a listen. They said that
the part of Brazil were going,so you can't even wear green at really

(01:46:54):
why they said, like, Iguess something to do with the gangs.
And they said, we're not goingto Rio. They told us. They
was like, man, it's oneof them places where they probably won't even
let us leave a full team.Damn, I'm not going. What color
they probably gonna have like armored vehiclesfollowing bro, why are we out here

(01:47:18):
now? Apparently Corinthians Arena has aninformal band on wearing the color green due
to a rivalry with Brazilian club PaulMiras. I'm not sure about that.
A player was once wearing green cleatsand they were fine for doing it.
So it's something to do with thegang activity. But that's kind of interesting
with both teams where their primary coloris not to worry. A fan group

(01:47:41):
at Packers Brazil has responded and everythingwill be fine. We are a peaceful,
loving people, big fans of sports, especially of Green Bay hashtag green.
It's not a problem. You won'tneed armored vehicles or anything like that.
I wanted to give you the lovewe give to our teams. Hashtag
go Pack Go. I've got nothingcan't wear green. That's something. Speaking

(01:48:11):
of Green Celtics Mavericks. Tonight,I have a huge problem with something Sports
Center just did, and I'll explainto you. It's finals related. It's
very picking knits, but it's onbrand for me too, and you'll roll
your eyes, but you'll also agreewith you party did I know you'll do
it again, though, you'll doit next segment here on Sports Talk seven

(01:48:32):
ninety. Right now, though,I want to tell you guys about Men's
Tea Clinic went over there earlier today. Here's the deal. I have just
been given the news from on highthat I can continue letting you guys know
that the celebration that began last monthin May of the tenth anniversary for Men's
Tea Clinic, it's going to continue. And that means twenty five dollars t
tests for new patients and thirty percentoff performance injections for new and existing patients.

(01:48:58):
So here's what happened earlier today.I went to Men's Tea Clinic and
I got every one of those performanceinjections along with my testosterone injection that I
always do on every single Thursday.The B twelve, the G shot,
and the LiPo amino all going alongwith the testosterone to get me back to
where I need to be, andthey can do the same thing for you.
It is really like going in andjust ordering off the menu of how

(01:49:24):
you want to get back to beingthe you that you had in your twenties,
maybe your early thirties. Your vitality, your energy, your sexual wellness,
your muscle mass, hair vitality,weight loss. The list goes on
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being where you want to be inany of those categories and so much more,

(01:49:44):
Men's Tea Clinic has got you squaredaway five Houston area locations to serve
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(01:50:06):
get out, and get back tobeing you. Celebrate their tenth anniversary at
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com. That's Men's TA Clinic dotcom. Myers prusses it. Goodbye,

(01:50:27):
Hey, Jake Myers, catch everyashros name on Sports Talk seven ninety before
the iHeartRadio app Home of your Astros. You can either have the money and
the hammer or you can walk outof here. You can't have both.
Favorite episode of Entour Rush impossible exactly. I knowed you'd say that. Do
you want to give away the otherpair of tickets next segment to the show
to end the show, Yes,we will have another pair of tickets to

(01:50:48):
another events coming up on August twentyfifth, over at the House of Blues
Shannon Sharp and Ocho Sinko will bein town and live for their nightcap Summers.
We will have another if you listento the show today related question for
you at the top of next segmentand give away a pair of tickets to

(01:51:08):
that. All right, The eighteencontinues here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
I know I tease something last segmentand I'm completely going brain dead about
what I said. So this isanother if you were listening to the show,
yes, I would be rolling myeyes. It is kind of finals
related. It's something that I don'tlike that. So everybody, everybody shows

(01:51:30):
up to the listening, Yeah,you were good. You listen to five
different things at any given time duringthe day. I could tell people that
the A's got two hits today,not enough to beat the Mariners. I
hate the Mariners because they're not gonnawin anything either. You know when they
do the the camera shots of theplayers arriving and going through security and they

(01:51:53):
follow them down the hall like JalenBrow, you can see their fit.
Well, that's part of it.Do you think that that should be limited
to just the participants in said sportingevent? So who else would be a
possible? You mean the reason whyI'm irritated right now. So you're saying,
like the celebrities that go to thegame, I wouldn't even say that.

(01:52:13):
The officials keep trying to work forthe team. You're getting close to
people that are on the broadcast broadcasters. Do we really need a Stephen A.
Smith walk up in his lavender suitacting like he's playing in the game
tonight? Do we really need that, tweeted from the Sports Center account and
then retweeted by the NBA on ESPNaccount. It's the way things are.

(01:52:36):
Just accept it. But I don'tremember seeing this before now tom Brady,
tom Brady will get that for hisfirst game. But tom Brady played and
didn't average one point per game likesteven A. Smith. Well, it's
not about him being it's about himbeing the face of the network, the

(01:52:59):
most recognizable talker on a talking televisionstage. You had told me back in
nineteen ninety eight when he was onFox Sportsnet going on the Last Word with
Jim Rome as a Philadelphia inquirer NBAbeat writer for the Sixers that he would
be what you just described. Iwould have laughed in your face. And

(01:53:19):
they've they've been doing it for along time, like he was on how
many different shows saying this is whowe want, this is what we want
to continue to promote, and he'sdone an exceptional job with it. I'll
say one other thing though, becausehe's actually on currently, the more current
players they can get, just likeinside the NBA gets Draymond Green and others
in season currently active like Josh Hart'sare on right now and he's on a

(01:53:42):
panel with five people, a hostand four analysts. He's one of the
analysts. I want to hear fromhim almost exclusively because he'll have way more
insightful things to say. And Ialso have heard from him many times before,
and I think he's going to bevery very good at it. But
plus, it's less Malika from MikeWilbon or Bob Myers or Steven A.

(01:54:03):
Smith, who are the other three? That's great, I hear from them
all the time. I want tohear from from There's one thing that actually
you can see in the in theshot that I wanted to bring up because
it was made a big deal ofearlier today on of course the Twitter verse,
the ex platform. In the seatsin the garden tonight, they've made
out in white on the green seatsthe number eighteen, the championship that the

(01:54:26):
Celtics are playing for, Number eighteen. It's in the bowl behind the one
of the baskets. Maybe Dallas willdo it too, so Eddie Sefko had
taken a picture of that. Hecovers the MAVs for MAVs dot Com,
but we all know him as aguy who covered the Rockets championships. He
did for the Houston Post. Yep. So he took a picture of that
and sent it out, and Ibelieve he used the word a little presumptuous.
No, and a lot of peoplehad the opposite reaction to it.

(01:54:50):
Now, MAVs fans were like,oh, you better let them know the
series is gonna end, you know, put this up on the bull and
board. They at they they grabbedthat and put at Luka Dancic at Kay
Irving like the players are gonna needthe They just so dumb. And then
the people who are aware, andI guess said he was not. I
was not either. They put thesame thing up at the exact same point
in the finals before it began thelast time they were in the finals looking

(01:55:14):
for championship number eighteen? Is thatthe reason they lost that one? Is
that the reason? It's not ait's more, this is what we're after.
How about what the Astros do whenthey make the postseason and on the
out of town scoreboard, here arethe eleven wins we need to get it?
Is that insulting to the other teamin some way? Well, only
Dallas would get been out of shapeabout something like this. You know,
it's funny. Dallas went to thefinals back in two thousand and six and

(01:55:40):
lost to the Heat. Well,specifically, they lost to Dwayne Wade's whistle
because he was at the free throwline. I mean, it's so funny.
People get been out of shape aboutthe amount of free throws that James
Harden got over the course of hisdominant years here in Houston. Dwayne Wade
lived at the foul line during thatsea and single handedly beat the Mavericks.

(01:56:02):
And it couldn't have happened to abetter bunch of people, fan base,
organization, owner. All of that, I didn't care even a little bit.
It's the first time in my lifewhere I was like, yeah,
NBA officiating is crap, and Ilove it. I mean, the Rockets
weren't there, who I didn't care. But we can't live in a world
where the Rangers win a championship andthen the Mavericks win the NBA Championship the

(01:56:24):
next year, especially when you considerthe fact that that fan base specifically doesn't
give two scorts and you know whatabout either one of those teams in comparison
to Jerry's team, because that's theonly team they actually care about. Up
there and everybody knows it, includingthem. Oh, the Mavericks win a
championship, they don't care, they'llforget about, just like nobody cares about

(01:56:44):
the Rangers championship last year. Nobodyeven talks about them being the defending champs
anymore. Maybe they'll talk about themmore if they get above five hundred.
Just since you brought up, we'llhit the brake with this simple question.
Six games played, they beat theMAVs four games to two in the two
thousand and six NBA Finals. DwayneWade did make several trips to the free
throw line per game. What wasthe average how many total free throws did
he shoot in a six game seriesthat they won four games to two.

(01:57:10):
I'm going to go with an averageof eleven free throws per game, which
is probably low, So sixty sixfree throws or so, I'm going to
say seventy five. He made seventyfive. Oh my gosh, how many
do you shoot? Is it overone hundred? He missed twenty two?
He was seventy five for ninety seven. One player got one hundred free throws
and it didn't even go to sevengames. Roughly sixteen point two attempts a

(01:57:32):
game Sucket Mavericks fan can't tell methat they weren't in on that, right,
conspiracy nuts out there that think aboutwho were there? Now, I
need to know the officiating crews forthe sixth game. Six games, they
probably used eight or nine or tenofficials, at least the Scott Foster he
was he was one of them.Joey Crawford was still there. Dick Bavetto

(01:57:54):
was probably still there. I don'tthink so, Derek, Uh, don't
think so. No, Dick Bavettostill working games. No SMA for this
final game of the series. SteveJavi, Eddie f rush Right, and
Dan Crawford. Dan Crawford was onethat I would have guessed, but you
didn't. Well, I didn't havea chance because we had to go to
break. Oh when I will thatwhen we come back. To be a

(01:58:17):
Houston sports fan isn't easy. Buthey, imagine living in Los Angeles or
New York and not understanding the dignityand class. Now that's gotta be hard,
really hardy. Back to Adam Clintonand Adam Wexler find Sports Talk seven
ninety said at the onset of thefinal segment of the show, we'd have

(01:58:40):
an opportunity to get you more ticketsthis time to go see what's called Nightcap
Summer Sessions with Shannon Sharp and ChadJohnson, who we now know as Ocho
Cinco. They'll be together live atthe House of Blues right here in the
h on August twenty fifth. Ticketswill soon be on sale Monday on the
tenth, ten am via livenation dotcom, so we have an opportunity to

(01:59:06):
send you out there. Similarly,for those of you who are listening intently
to today's version of the A Team, Charles Barkley, he came up today
on the show and we were talkingabout what was on his basketball reference page,
which was way too many ridiculous nicknames, like fifteen of them. And
as I was rattling off all ofhis nicknames, for some reason, I

(01:59:28):
was pairing him with a very famousmusician that everybody knows, and I said
his name over and over and over, like this guy and his nickname.
So what very famous musician did Isay when I was running through Charles Barkley's
basketball reference nicknames? Again, Idon't think you're going to figure out why,
but if you were listening, youwill know the answer seven one three
two one two five seven ninety sevenone three two one two five seven ninety

(01:59:53):
Name that musician and you can gosee Shannon an O show Chop it up
at the House of Blues. Whatteam will win the NBA Finals in how
many games couple in? One thingthat I found pretty interesting and not surprising,
the amount of tickets and the amountof money coming in heavily favor the

(02:00:16):
underdog, as I think was intendedby the favorite stat exactly the line has
gone in that direction. Also,it's changed since it opened. The Mavericks
have become a little bit less ofan underdog and the Celtics have become a
little bit less of a favorite.But I think it was set up knowing
that that's where it would come in. So more money is on the MAVs,

(02:00:39):
more tickets are on the MAVs,so when the favorite wins, the
house wins. I do think theMavericks have a little bit better than a
fighting chance. They're under talented overall, but they gave themselves a chance to
win by finally realizing probably not gonnawin if Dwight Pile's in the middle for
us, and they didn't just getone replacement for They got two replacements for

(02:01:00):
him in one offseason. Lively andGafford give them full games of elite rim
protection, elite field goal shooting becausemost of their shots are dunks and aloops,
and the ability to get the playthat they weren't getting before from undersized
players. PJ. Washington just hangsout in the corner, gets wide open
threes, has hit enough of themin this postseason, and you could argue

(02:01:24):
that they have the two best playersin the series simply because of what they're
capable of, and we've seen iton display in the postseed. You'd probably
lose. I don't think people thinkthe overall game of Kyrie is better than
the overall game of Jason Tatum,but I'm here for it. Porzingis returns.
The Celtics have been awesome without him, both in the regular season and
in their fourteen playoff games. They'velost just twice Fighting chance. Yes,

(02:01:48):
I don't, and I don't eventhink six the Celtics have played great.
I think they're going to have toplay great now. I think the MAVs
are going to make them play greatnow, and they are going to play
great and to win their eighteenth championship. I don't think it's gonna be particularly
close. I'm talking five games.I talk about the MAVs in the same

(02:02:12):
manner you talk about the Yankees.Yes, even though there's a lot of
evidence to prove otherwise. I thinkthey're gonna their runs gonna come to a
screeching Hall. It's definitely the bestteam they've faced. I don't and they've
They've had not an easy run.But I think and we're both picking the
same time. You do. Youknow that it was the same season that
the Yankees were all but penciled inover the first half. Different It's baseball

(02:02:35):
and basketball are different. You broughtup the Yankees, I know, but
you act like they're not awesome thanthey are. I mean, it was
like, why are we even playingthese games? They're just awesome. They're
gonna just you know, playing theparade route. And they didn't even win
a playoff game against the Astros laterthat year. I know the Mavericks have

(02:02:57):
been I guess if you want tocall it hot, I don't even know
how you would say that, Like, if you're gonna say that Mavericks on
a run and the Celtics are tooand by the way, the Celtics didn't
lose a game in the conference finals. And you can say that Tyre's Hall
or Burton was hurt, but Imean, I just the Celtics are sixty
four and eighteen. They lost fourtimes on this floor this year. Ever,

(02:03:17):
they've both been good at closing.They had games that they could have
easily lost to the Pacers in thatseries, and they kept closing better.
They kept out playing them from startto fast. They have been the best
team in the NBA. It's beenthat way from day one of the NBA
season. I can't believe where it'ssuch a long year. It really is
here we are. Maybe it's justbecause we had that week off between the

(02:03:39):
conference finals and now. I justdon't I mean, great, great run,
Mavericks, you got to the finals. By here, you get destroyed,
get destroyed. I think because Ithink people are trying to like manifest
it because they wanted to be agood series. It's hard to fluke your
way to the finals. It's alsohard to be six four in eighteen and

(02:04:00):
thirty seven and four at home wherethey have home field or home court advantage.
And I need I mean, you'veseen a sixty five win team not
win the title without one of theirbest players and Scott Paul And was it
a hamstring that kristapsh was out with? He has the leg injury. I

(02:04:20):
still can't get turned back to thelittle bits and pieces I saw of the
clipped program, because there's all sortsof stuff with Doc Lawrence Fishburne coaching the
Clippers. Does he talk the rightway? Not really? But the actors
playing DeAndre Jordan, Blake Griffin,Chris Paul looking dreadful. Yes, Oh

(02:04:41):
well, I didn't think that.I mean, that was like when they
had Cuba Gooding Junior playing O.J. Simpson. Come on, man,
what was that? All I sawwas Rod Tidwell the whole time.
That's the wrong football player. Allright, we will get out. By
the time we get back in tomorrow, we will at least have a finals
game to talk about. Oh,Brian win hurts on my screen. But
we'll have a lot to get torehash that. And then of course gets

(02:05:02):
you ready for a weekend set withthe Astros as well. Right now,
I need to get you ready forthe weekend as far as your bank account
goes, because look, it's sixo'clock on a Thursday night, the weekend
has begun. Let's face it,you don't even you shouldn't even go to
work tomorrow. I'm giving you theday off. And on your day off,
you should go to one of thelocations of Primeway Federal Credit Union and

(02:05:24):
you can find out where they areat PRIMEWAYFCU dot com and open up a
checking account. Why because it's thebest checking account in the entire city,
which earns you up to two percentinterest and gives you extras that no one
else is even thinking to give you. I don't know what got into them.
They might be a little crazy,but man, you should take advantage
of it. Roadside assistance twenty fourto seven, mobile phone protection in case

(02:05:46):
something happens to your cell phone.They just they got you. It's taken
care of dark web monitoring, shoppingrewards, travel and leisure discounts, and
when you use your debit card topay monthly charges can be way. It's
all right there at their website,PRIMEWAYFCU dot com, where you can open
your account with their user friendly,easy online application. Visit PRIMEWAYFCU dot com

(02:06:10):
today. That's Primeway FCU dot comthat is gonna do it. For today's
show. Back at it again tomorrow, like I mentioned, but we gotta
get you ready for more astros conversation. The Crawford Box Cast getting underway in
a matter of minutes with Ross Virealand Chris Gordy. That is right around
the corner for Dan, for Wex, I may see. It is the

(02:06:31):
A team here on Sports Talk sevenninety oh and for Trey as well.
I'm sorry, Trey, I didn'tmean to leave you out. We will
be back at it again tomorrow afternoonat three o'clock to round out the week.
Have a good night, everyone,

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